The Aubette in Basel

19 March 2021

The Aubette in Strasbourg? Wrong, the Museum of Art (Kunstmuseum) in Basel. The museum pays attention to Sophie Taeuber (1889-1943). The Swiss-born artist (Davos) studied applied arts at St. Gall and Munich. The British Arts and Crafts Movement had a profound influence on her, and she was deeply committed to manual craftsmanship and the beauty of simple materials.

In 1916, Zurich’s trade school hired her to teach design and embroidery. She met her future husband, Hans Arp (1886-1966), in Zurich and became involved in the Dada movement.  She married Hans Arp in 1922, hence the name Taeuber-Arp.  Hans Arp (1886-1966) was from Strasbourg.

After a long period of artistic development, including Dada in Zurich (1916-1928), the international avant-garde, and the so-called Cercle et Carré and constructivism in Paris, Sophie and her husband were engaged in the Aubette project in Strasbourg.

Their (revolutionary) language of colours, geometric abstraction and modern architecture was based on compositions of square and rectangular fields of colour. Aubette, a neoclassical building from the eighteenth century, was renovated by Sophie and other avant-garde artists.

She took on the tearoom, the Aubette bar, and the lobby bar. Her husband and the Dutch designer Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931, founder of the Stijl) designed other project components. The Aubette is a museum nowadays.

Sophie exhibited 24 abstract works in the ‘Konstruktivisten exhibition at the Kunsthalle (Hall of Art) in Basel in 1937.

(Further information: Gelebte Abstraktion/Living Abstraction, www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch).