Sophie Taeuber-Arp Danced Between the Lines
“Abstract art is only important if it is the endless rhythm where the very ancient and the distant future meet.” — Sophie Taeuber-Arp
Sometimes, when I’m in my studio, I think about rhythm… shwoosh, whoosh, bam, scratch, wipe, spalt. The rhythm in the way one color leans into the next, the rhythm of my movements, the rhythm in the invisible line that runs through it all.
Sophie Taeuber-Arp understood that rhythm. She painted it, she danced it, stitched it, carved it, lived it.
Born in 1889 in Switzerland, Sophie wasn’t interested in staying in the lines. She blurred them, hopped over them, made them into something new.
She worked across embroidery, textiles, sculpture, painting, dance, and architecture—at a time when women artists were often expected to stick to one thing (preferably something “decorative” and quiet).
Her work was playful but precise. Geometric but full of life. And while the men of the Dada movement were shouting and smashing, Sophie was building—shapes, patterns, spaces. She turned everyday materials into something you wanted to stare at forever.
Reading about her, I feel I kinda kinship. Like me, she was a maker of many things. Someone who didn’t want to choose something and stick to it. (or, in my case, it’s more like can’t. I’m just not wired that way.) Anyhow, she let it all in… and she let it all out.
She reminds me: there’s no rule about how to create,
only the ones we choose to follow
or break.
🎨 Want to see what I’ve been making lately? You can collect art, support my work, or sign up for my newsletter at anniewood.com
My latest painting…
Rhythm! Yes. Profoundly.