A Study on the Artistc Life and the Constructivist Color Understanding of Sophie Taeuber-Arp

Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889-1943), who was a Swiss painter, textile designer, dancer, and interior designer and co-grounded the Zürich Dada group, developed her own constructivist color idea. This study aims to elucidate a space-constitutive color understanding through the interplay between colour and form, which was entrenched in the artistic works, especially in her interior color design of the Strasbourg entertainment center, Aubette. The artistic works of Taeuber-Arp have been overshadowed by her husband, Hans Arp, for a long time and could be re-examined at the end of 20th century. The study on her Dadaist art works and her own constructivist color understanding is still in its infancy. Therefore this study first of all reappraises in the context of the constructivist color understanding the multi-faceted artistic life from the dadaist painting and expressive dance to the marionette design and constructivist interior design which has been not properly recognized in the shadow of masculine culture, and based on this context tries to deduce the core implications of her constructivist color understanding. And then it sheds light on the constructivist color understanding by analyzing the color planning of the Strasbourg entertainment center, Aubette. This study results in a much-promising color understanding of Taeuber-Arp: The effects that the interplay of the combination of varied colors and the juxtaposition of geometric forms brings about constitute a real space in which the silence of the geometric forms and the polyphonic splendour of adjoined colors are harmonized. Differently from the existing constructivism, the constructivist color understanding of Sophie Taeuber-Arp could reach the most realistic equilibrium in which various kinds of opposition may be grasped momently through a free use of the dynamic space-constitutive effects. In the center of her constructivist art a principle of vertical-horizontal construction is deeply established, which builds a invisible lattice system through juxtaposition of forms that are divided only the colors and makes it visible through the colors of individual geometric forms. Finally her constructivist color understanding implies that the most realistic equilibrium can be reached through elucidating the invisible lattice system as a space-constitutive basic system of combination of forms which are led by the colors.