Available Formats
Sophie Taeuber-Arp: Dada Head
By (Author) Anne Umland
Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
25th October 2019
18th July 2019
United States
General
Non Fiction
709.2
Paperback
48
Width 184mm, Height 229mm
200g
A new title in MoMA's One on One series, focusing on Sophie Taeuber-Arp's Dada Head
Upon first encountering Sophie Taeuber-Arp's Dada Head (1920), one might wonder whether it is a sculptural bust, a hat stand, or a fetish object. Indicative of her pursuit to dissipate the conventional boundaries between the applied and fine arts that existed in pre-World War II Europe, the sculpture defies categorization. The artist referred to Dada Head as a self-portrait, but rather than communicating interest in a physical, naturalistic resemblance, it is a composite of elements of art and of the everyday that interested her. At the heart of the Zurich Dada movement, Taeuber-Arp was a dancer, designer, puppeteer, sculptor, painter and writer. Dada Head existed - and still exists - as an investigation into participation across boundaries rather than within them.
a wonderful analysis of a quintessentially DADA work. What is interesting about this particular analysis is how much time is spent on contextualizing this work.--Jerrold Shiroma "ARLIS/NA Reviews"
Anne Umland is a Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, New York