Other examples include Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei, Alexander Graham Bell, Imhotep, Pythagoras and Aristotle.ĭuring the renaissance, and also in the decades prior to that time period, it was much more common to be a polymath or a ‘homo universalis’. The most classic example perhaps is Leonardo da Vinci, who has been celebrated as an inventor, a painter, a scientist and much more. Follow her on instagram.A polymath is someone who is considered an expert or even a genius in multiple fields. Harriet Jennings is public programme curator at The Building Centre. Sophie Taeuber-Arp is at Tate Modern until 17 October 2021 It allows us to have no fear before the problems of life.’ This stirring sentiment is certainly evident throughout the rhythmic work of this timely show. In 1937 Sophie Taeuber-Arp wrote ‘Something to which I attribute great value is gaiety. With all the Tate’s major shows this year devoted to women artists – from Paula Rego to Lubaina Himid – the public can encounter legends living and lost. The exhibition coincides with a welcome move by museums to celebrate artists who slipped through the cracks of a canon with no recognition of applied arts, or who were neglected for male contemporaries. Shortly after they were made, in January 1943, Taeuber-Arp died from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. During exile from occupied France, she worked in easily transportable materials and the 1942 Geometric Constructions – bold ink circles on paper – are remarkable precursors to 1960s Op Art. The exhibition’s smooth thematic arrangement reveals how Taeuber-Arp’s work evolved throughout her lifetime, inspired contemporaries from Duchamp to Kandinsky, and reflected the turbulence of the era. The wooden drawers and stackable shelves in bright blue, yellow, and grey show a design approach of rational functionality, with joy expressed in colour and handle details. The house, now the Fondation Arp, is represented by a large wall print hung behind original furniture Taeuber-Arp created for the holistic project. The exhibition coincides with a welcome move by museums to celebrate artists who were neglected for male contemporaries
![modern polymath modern polymath](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PVAs3aJHBmA/maxresdefault.jpg)
After the couple moved into the house in 1929, Taeuber-Arp updated her business card to advertise herself as ‘architect’. Built in local burrstone, the building’s rough, undulating surface is offset by its clean rectangular form and angular cast concrete balconies and entrances. The building is a testament to her material sensitivity and amalgamation of craft with precise forms of modernism. The completed Aubette, one of the first public modern interiors, was praised by contemporary Emmy Hemmings as ‘a treasure box’ of Taeuber-Arp’s signature abstraction.Īfter the Aubette’s success, Taeuber-Arp embarked on designing a home and studio in Clamart, outside Paris. Closer inspection reveals the artwork as a working document with sums and floorplan scribbles decorating the borders. The gouache Floor of the passageway in the Aubette from a distance is an abstraction of blue, grey, black and white horizons. In Aubette 182, 1927, she applies techniques from textile design to architectural drawing – the room plan opened out like a flat garment template, with floors and walls waiting to be folded up into three dimensions. In 1926 she was commissioned to design the interiors of the Aubette, a cultural centre in Strasbourg, with her husband Hans Arp and collaborator Theo von Doesburg. She applies techniques from textile design to architectural drawing – the room plan opened out like a flat garment template As a student in 1911, Taeuber-Arp told her sister ‘Furnishing rooms for an architect … is what appeals to me most.’ By the 1920s she surpassed this wish and became the architect herself. The second major gallery is devoted to ‘abstraction in three dimensions’ and her contribution to architecture and interior design.