Sophie Taeuber-Arp: Dada Head

Description

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.

Anne Umland is a Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, New York

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"