Briony Fer on Sophie Taeuber-Arp

The Great Women Artists

Katy Hessel

Arts

4.8 • 944 Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2026

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

TODAY on the GWA Podcast: esteemed art historian Briony Fer on the avant-garde icon, Sophie Taeuber-Arp. The Professor of History of Art at University College London and a Fellow of the British Academy, Briony Fer is one of the leading art historians in the world. Writing and publishing extensively on modern and contemporary art, specialising in the history of abstraction in the 20th century, Fer has curated monumental exhibitions on artists such as Anni Albers at the Tate Modern, Louise Bourgeois at the National Museum, Oslo, Eva Hesse at the Fruitmarket, Mel Bochner at Whitechapel, and more But the reason we are speaking with Fer today is because she has also just curated an exhibition “Sophie Taeuber-Arp: The Rule of Curves” at Hauser & Wirth Paris, and published a stunning book on the great artist, dancer, performer, puppet maker, bag weaver, teacher, stained-glass maker, sculptor, architect, and so much more, Sophie Taeuber-Arp… Born in Switzerland in 1889, Taeuber-Arp is famously associated with the Dada movement, a group of artists who formed post-devastation of World War I to make sense of a nonsensical world. Performing dance routines set to Hugo Ball poetry and turning to her geometric abstractions, full of explosions of colour, that can look equally mechanical as they are made with a human hand – as Fer writes, "diagrammatic and decorative” – Taebuer-Arp was at the forefront of modernism, conjuring new ways of working with form and colour, and exploring – and twisting – the grid, the icon of modern art, for the modern world - and I can’t wait to find out more. The book: https://shop.hauserwirth.com/products/sophie-taeuber-arp-la-regle-des-courbes-the-rule-of-curves THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION: www.famm.com/en/ www.instagram.com/famm_mougins // www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037 Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Mikaela Carmichael Music by Ben Wetherfield

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome back to the Great Women Artists podcast. I'm very excited to bring you today's episode, but just before we get to our sponsor, I am delighted to say that my new book, The Story of Art Without Men, an illustrated guide to amazing women artists for younger readers, or anyone, to be honest, is out now. You can buy it from your local bookshop
0:22.8	or wherever you get your books. And I'm thrilled to say that this series is supported by the Levit
0:28.1	collection, a vast and varied art collection, and which in the last eight years has become
0:33.7	entirely focused on works by women artists. You can find much of this made up of
0:39.3	impressionists, surrealist, abstract expressionists, contemporary artists and more at FAM in Mujan in France,
0:46.1	the first museum in the world outside of the USA to have a permanent collection dedicated to major
0:52.4	female artists. It's spearheaded by Christian Levitt,
0:55.6	who has published three research books in this area. Located in the heart of the historic village
1:01.2	of Mujan Nican in the south of France, FAM features a stunning collection of nearly 100 works
1:07.1	by 90 internationally acclaimed and emerging female artists.
1:15.6	The impressive exhibition of paintings, sculptures and photographs from the Leveck Collection highlights the creative brilliance of women who have played pivotal roles in shaping some of the major artistic movements, from impressionism to contemporary art.
1:25.3	It's only 30 minutes away from Nice Airport, and FAMM, which stands for
1:29.2	female artists of the Mujan Museum, is open every day. And for further information and bookings,
1:35.4	please visit www.famfamfamphablem.com. I hope you enjoy this episode.
1:45.4	Hello, everyone, and welcome to The Great Women Artist podcast with me, Katie Hessel.
1:51.6	Some of you might know me from The Great Women Artists, an Instagram account I set up in October
1:55.9	2015, which celebrates female artists on a daily basis, ranging from young graduates to old masters.
2:02.6	Well, in a similar fashion to the Instagram, this podcast is all about celebrating female artists from a variety of backgrounds and histories.
2:11.6	And I am so excited to be interviewing artists on their career or artists, writers, curators or general art lovers
2:18.3	on the women artist who means most of them. What I want this podcast to do is celebrate female
2:24.2	artists in all different capacities so you, the listener, can gain a look into the greatest
2:29.2	female artists working now or from art history.
	...

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