Hans/Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp

Bozar in Brussels 

20 September–19 January 2025

Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Høvikodden (near Oslo), Norway

20 February to 11 May 2025

This autumn, Bozar is devoting a major exhibition to one of the most important artist-couples in art history: Hans/Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, two central figures of 20th-century abstract art. With over 250 works, the exhibition offers an overview of their extremely varied artistic oeuvre, encompassing painting, sculpture, drawing, textile, design and literature. This is the largest retrospective devoted to the Arp and Taeuber-Arp couple in 35 years.  “From the moment they met in Zurich in 1915, Hans/Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp shared the same conception of art, namely that there is no hierarchy between the ‘fine arts’ and the applied arts, between major and minor art, between the visual and the functional,” explains Walburga Krupp, curator of the exhibition.  Zoë Gray, Director of Exhibitions at Bozar, points out that “Neither Arp nor Taeuber-Arp allowed their creativity to be bounded by strict disciplines. Indeed, they were ahead of their time in embracing trans-disciplinarity. That's what makes their work so relevant to us today.” The exhibition at Bozar is a unique opportunity to rediscover the biomorphic forms, collages and sculptures of Hans/Jean Arp, as well as the impressive abstract, colourful and geometric work of Sophie Taeuber-Arp. ‘While during her lifetime she met with international recognition and commercial success, Taeuber-Arp’s legacy was overshadowed by Arp’s in the decades following her death, despite his attempts to the contrary recalls Zoë Gray. ‘It is only in recent years that Taeuber-Arp’s importance has been recognised by institutions and art historians. This exhibition presents the two artists as equals, tracing the development of their practices as friends, lovers and partners.”  In addition to their individual artistic creations, the exhibition also presents the works they produced together, four-handed, from the very beginning of their relation until Sophie Taeuber-Arp's untimely death in 1943.  Walburga Krupp adds: “What distinguishes them from other artist couples is that they didn't just work together on projects or commissions. At the end of the 1930s, they also created works known as ‘duo-works’, in which their mutual influence is palpable and individuality dissolves. This is what makes the work of this pair of artists so special.”  The exhibition offers a rich overview of the artistic output of the Arp & Taeuber-Arp couple. More than 250 works (230 paintings, sculptures, collages, drawings, textiles, jewellery, reliefs; 70 photographs, books, archive documents, etc.) from over 75 international museums, foundations and private collections have been brought together at Bozar for the occasion. Exceptional European and American loans are coming form MoMA, Tate, Kunstmuseum Basel, Kunsthaus Zürich, Fondation Arp (Clamart), Fondazione Marguerite Arp (Locarno), Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin/Rolandswerth, Yale University Art Gallery, etc.  Some fifty works in the show have rarely been shown before, and some are being exhibited for the very first time, including an embroidery by Sophie Taeuber-Arp from c. 1920, now at the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich, which has been restored especially for the exhibition. Another work that will be shown for the first time is Arp’s watercolour Man and Woman (1928) - used for the exhibition's campaign image – coming from a private Belgian collection.  This link with Belgium is no coincidence, since the first international breakthrough and commercial success for Hans/Jean Arp came in Brussels, at exhibitions at the gallery L'Époque (May 1928) and the gallery Le Centaure (Nov 1928). Almost 100 years later, some of his works are reunited in the Bozar exhibition in Brussels.  The exhibition is curated by Bozar & Walburga Krupp, one of the leading experts on the life and work of Sophie Taeuber-Arp. She co-curated the exhibition ‘Sophie Taeuber-Arp: Living Abstraction’ at the Kunstmuseum Basel, Tate Modern in London and MoMA in New York in 2021-2022. After Bozar, the exhibition will travel to the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Høvikodden (near Oslo), Norway, where it will be on show from 20 February to 11 May 2025.  Catalogue Composition (c. 1929),  Jean Arp. Photo: MMick Vincenz; © SABAM Belgium 2024 Circle Picture (1931), Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Photo: Martin P. Bühler; © Bilddaten gemeinfrei – Kunstmuseum Basel Duo-Drawing (1939), Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Photo: Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin/Rolandswerth; © SABAM Belgium 2024