Curatorial Assistant, Laura Braverman: Taeuber-Arp and her husband left their house in Clamart, just south of Paris, a week before the German troops entered in June of 1940. They first fled to Nérac, in the southwest of France and then, Veyrier in the Savoy. They tried to obtain visas to go to neutral Switzerland, but their application was unsuccessful. So they left for Grasse, a small city in the south of France.
Senior Curator, Anne Umland: She wrote her sister:
Artist, Sophie Taeuber-Arp (read by curator, Walburga Krupp): You can well imagine how painful it was for us to leave all our work, all that we’d done over the past twenty years.
Laura Braverman: Life was quite challenging. But despite the difficult circumstances, she enjoyed the landscape around Grasse. Two of the drawings on this wall are landscapes that Taeuber-Arp drew while she was there. Drawing such intricately detailed landscapes might've been a way for her to ground herself in the present place and moment to capture time that she knew was fleeting.
Sophie Taeuber-Arp: The hills are covered with blooming Mimosas. Nature is an orgy of yellow. . . . And soon, if the good weather becomes more stable, everything will be white and pink. . . . What a wonderful country! We are taking long walks to the sea, this marvelous cure for so many things..
Laura Braverman: I really love these drawings. You could see how attentive she was to everything. And how she really cherished just looking at the interaction of shapes and colors, even in these most difficult times.