Sophie Taeuber-Arp

I’ve never thought too much about Dada. My training in painting focused more on individual artists than movements. In my opinion, Duchamp was always thought of as the leader of that movement and I never felt much for him. I understood what he was doing. I understood the ready-mades but my training was based more in “classical” modern art among other things. Form. Color. Line. My paintings have always been based on these ideas so you can imagine how an artist like Duchamp wouldn’t mean much to me, but last weekend I took part in a guided tour of the Dada exhibit at the National Gallery. The exhibit was divided into different rooms, each focusing on a different city where Dada was being created. The exhibit began with Zurich. The first pieces of art that met my eye were created by Sophie Taeber-Arp. I have long admired Taeber-Arp and have had little direct exposure to her pieces. I was thrilled, even though the gallery was packed with a Saturday afternoon crowd, to just be in the same room as her pieces. It was difficult to get close to some of the works but I listened intently as our knowledgeable guide spoke about her artwork and her relationship to Dada. There it all was. Form. Color. Line. Her work exploring these themes is beautiful, thoughtful and real. We moved through the rest of the exhibition, viewing works by Kurt Schwitters, Otto Dix, Max Ernst and Man Ray. The rest of the exhibit was interesting but I would have been content to stay in the first room with Taeuber-Arp’s work for hours. I left the exhibit with a better understanding of Dada, the thoughts and emotions behind it, the anger many of the Dada artists had towards the first world war but nothing I learned that day struck me as much as being in that first room.