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Dada

June 18–September 11, 2006

The artist referred to this turned-wood sculpture as a portrait, although it betrays no interest in naturalistic, physical resemblance. Instead, the design creates a masklike face that is reminiscent of Oceanic and Northwest Coast Indian artifacts.

Anne Umland, Report on purchase, Department of Painting and Sculpture, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2003

Sophie Taeuber-Arp was born in Davos, Switzerland, in 1889.... Her first significant works were realized within the heady milieu of Zurich Dada. She was a key participant in the Dadaists activities with her companion Hans Arp....

It was during Taeuber-Arp's Zurich periods that she created her famous Dada Heads, forms of turned wood resembling the dummies of haberdashers and hairdressers, which she painted with highly stylized angular and curvilinear patterns. Taeuber-Arp called these works "portraits," though they show none of the interest in naturalistic, physical resemblance usually associated with the genre. Instead, their simple, elegantly severe shapes and colorful geometric designs combine to create mask-like faces, which evoke the ornamentation on Oceanic and Northwest Coast Indian artifacts. Incisively witty, Taeuber-Arp's Dada Heads are quintessential Dada objects, polychromed sculptures that might double as hat stands, described by Hugo Weber as a "feminine nuance of the Dada game: nonsense with a utilitarian purpose."(1)

1. Hugo Weber, in Georg Schmidt, ed., Sophie Taeuber-Arp (Basel: Holbein Verlag, 1948), p. 125.

THE COLLECTION

Painting and Sculpture

Dada Head

Sophie Taeuber-Arp (Swiss, 1889-1943)

Dada

June 18–September 11, 2006

Anne Umland, Report on purchase, Department of Painting and Sculpture, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2003

The Museum of Modern Art

THE COLLECTION

Painting and Sculpture

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Dada Head

Sophie Taeuber-Arp (Swiss, 1889-1943)

Gallery Text: Dada

June 18–September 11, 2006

Publication Excerpt: Anne Umland, Report on purchase, Department of Painting and Sculpture, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2003

The Museum of Modern Art

MoMA

Dada

Anne Umland, Report on purchase, Department of Painting and Sculpture, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2003