A Self-Portrait in Words
6
Writings from the Fondazione Marguerite Arp Simona Martinoli
A Remarkable Friendship
12
Sophie Taeuber-Arp in her letters to Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann Walburga Krupp
Editorial Note
24
Translator’s Note
25
Letters and Postcards 1–35
26
A Brief Chronology of Sophie Taeuber-Arp
124
Index of Persons
126
CONTENTS
4—
—5
A Self-Portrait in Words
6
Writings from the Fondazione Marguerite Arp Simona Martinoli
A Remarkable Friendship
12
Sophie Taeuber-Arp in her letters to Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann Walburga Krupp
Editorial Note
24
Translator’s Note
25
Letters and Postcards 1–35
26
A Brief Chronology of Sophie Taeuber-Arp
124
Index of Persons
126
CONTENTS
4—
—5
A Self-Portrait in Words Writings from the Fondazione Marguerite Arp Simona Martinoli
H
ardly anyone writes letters anymore, as they have long since been replaced by e-mails, texts, chat, and other forms of digital written communication, which exist in quantitative proportion inverse to their historical relevance. While the immateriality of electronic documents renders them fragile and fleeting, the materiality of paper documents permits us, even decades later, to come into contact with archival troves such as the thirty-five letters that Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889–1943) sent from 1932 to 1942 to the Basel collectors Annie (1893– 1964) and Oskar Müller-Widmann (1887–1956). The compelling nature of this handwritten correspondence is evident in its history and tangibility. Written by hand on carefully chosen stationery or picture postcards, these words (spontaneous at times and studious at others) are a moving testimony to the life of one of the most innovative artists of the twentieth century. Sophie Taeuber-Arp, pioneer of Concrete Art, was a cross-disciplinary artist whose all-encompassing practice spanned applied art, painting, sculpture, dance, and even architecture. The letters reveal to the reader how the artist’s relationship with her most important collectors unfolded, lending much insight into her life and personality while also revealing interesting aspects of her relationship with her husband Jean/Hans Arp (1886–1966). The topics that emerge are varied: exhibition projects and reflections on art and her artist friends. Taken as a whole, the letters and postcards are an important document of their time, as they also give historical and artistic insight into the turbulent period from the 1930s to World War II. Last but not least, they shed light on the importance of the city of Basel as an outpost of modern art in Switzerland.
—7
A Self-Portrait in Words Writings from the Fondazione Marguerite Arp Simona Martinoli
H
ardly anyone writes letters anymore, as they have long since been replaced by e-mails, texts, chat, and other forms of digital written communication, which exist in quantitative proportion inverse to their historical relevance. While the immateriality of electronic documents renders them fragile and fleeting, the materiality of paper documents permits us, even decades later, to come into contact with archival troves such as the thirty-five letters that Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889–1943) sent from 1932 to 1942 to the Basel collectors Annie (1893– 1964) and Oskar Müller-Widmann (1887–1956). The compelling nature of this handwritten correspondence is evident in its history and tangibility. Written by hand on carefully chosen stationery or picture postcards, these words (spontaneous at times and studious at others) are a moving testimony to the life of one of the most innovative artists of the twentieth century. Sophie Taeuber-Arp, pioneer of Concrete Art, was a cross-disciplinary artist whose all-encompassing practice spanned applied art, painting, sculpture, dance, and even architecture. The letters reveal to the reader how the artist’s relationship with her most important collectors unfolded, lending much insight into her life and personality while also revealing interesting aspects of her relationship with her husband Jean/Hans Arp (1886–1966). The topics that emerge are varied: exhibition projects and reflections on art and her artist friends. Taken as a whole, the letters and postcards are an important document of their time, as they also give historical and artistic insight into the turbulent period from the 1930s to World War II. Last but not least, they shed light on the importance of the city of Basel as an outpost of modern art in Switzerland.
—7
I
A Remarkable Friendship Sophie Taeuber-Arp in her letters to Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann Walburga Krupp 1
This title, as those of most of Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s works, was first applied posthumously upon compiling her catalogue raisonné (Georg Schmidt, ed., Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Basel, 1948). The artist herself rarely titled her works.
n early October 1932, Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann visited Hans Arp at his studio and home near Paris, in Meudon, where they also encountered Sophie Taeuber-Arp. The Müller-Widmanns first met Arp earlier that year in May, on the occasion of his exhibition in Basel. The couple had begun collecting contemporary art by local artists in 1924, following Oskar Müller-Widmann’s appointment in Basel as professor of dentistry and spurred on by his making the acquaintance of the art historian Georg Schmidt. Initially, they mainly acquired works by the expressionist group Rot-Blau; a visit in October 1929 to the exhibition Abstrakte und surrealistische Malerei und Plastik (Abstract and surrealist painting and sculpture) at the Kunsthaus Zürich was the catalyst for a new focus on collecting abstract art. It comes to no surprise, then, that Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann were enamored of the artist’s work from their first meeting and purchased her 1931 painting Equilibre.1 They were likewise impressed by the Arps’ house in Meudon, which Taeuber-Arp had designed herself, and asked her to draw up plans for their future home in Basel. The correspondence—which began on October 27, 1932 with Sophie Taeuber-Arp expressing her gratitude for the Müller-Widmanns’ invitation to stay with them on the occasion of the memorial exhibition for the collector Emanuel Hoffmann, who died in an accident in early October—is primarily addressed to Annie Müller-Widmann. Annie Müller-Widmann’s interest in music and the visual arts were fostered by her upbringing in an artistically diverse family—her grandfather Joseph Victor and father Max Widmann were writers, Fritz and Johanna Widmann, her father’s siblings, painted, and her sister Ellen was a
— 13
I
A Remarkable Friendship Sophie Taeuber-Arp in her letters to Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann Walburga Krupp 1
This title, as those of most of Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s works, was first applied posthumously upon compiling her catalogue raisonné (Georg Schmidt, ed., Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Basel, 1948). The artist herself rarely titled her works.
n early October 1932, Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann visited Hans Arp at his studio and home near Paris, in Meudon, where they also encountered Sophie Taeuber-Arp. The Müller-Widmanns first met Arp earlier that year in May, on the occasion of his exhibition in Basel. The couple had begun collecting contemporary art by local artists in 1924, following Oskar Müller-Widmann’s appointment in Basel as professor of dentistry and spurred on by his making the acquaintance of the art historian Georg Schmidt. Initially, they mainly acquired works by the expressionist group Rot-Blau; a visit in October 1929 to the exhibition Abstrakte und surrealistische Malerei und Plastik (Abstract and surrealist painting and sculpture) at the Kunsthaus Zürich was the catalyst for a new focus on collecting abstract art. It comes to no surprise, then, that Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann were enamored of the artist’s work from their first meeting and purchased her 1931 painting Equilibre.1 They were likewise impressed by the Arps’ house in Meudon, which Taeuber-Arp had designed herself, and asked her to draw up plans for their future home in Basel. The correspondence—which began on October 27, 1932 with Sophie Taeuber-Arp expressing her gratitude for the Müller-Widmanns’ invitation to stay with them on the occasion of the memorial exhibition for the collector Emanuel Hoffmann, who died in an accident in early October—is primarily addressed to Annie Müller-Widmann. Annie Müller-Widmann’s interest in music and the visual arts were fostered by her upbringing in an artistically diverse family—her grandfather Joseph Victor and father Max Widmann were writers, Fritz and Johanna Widmann, her father’s siblings, painted, and her sister Ellen was a
— 13
2
Gerhard Schaub, Kurt Schwitters und die ‹andere› Schweiz: Unveröffentlichte Briefe aus dem Exil [Kurt Schwitters and the ‘other’ Switzerland: Unpublished letters in exile]. Berlin, 1998.
successful actress. The couple’s epistolary exchange with the artists whose work they collected was mostly conducted by Annie Müller-Widmann, as illustrated by the letters that survive from Béla Bartók, Wassily Kandinsky, Antoine Pevsner, Kurt Schwitters,2 and Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, among others. Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s thirty-five letters and cards illustrate a burgeoning friendship between the artist and addressee, which can be traced in the gradual change in the original German from the use of the formal “you” (Sie), to using the Sie form with the collector’s first name, and, finally, to the personal, familiar “you” (Du). While the topic at hand in the beginning is primarily artistic, over the years their correspondence becomes more familiar—and in exile, existential. Passing mention is made in the correspondence that survives of the project of building a new home for Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann in the Bruderholz district of Basel, although it was of great importance to Taeuber-Arp. She was not a trained architect; during her studies at the Lehr- und Versuch-Ateliers für angewandte und freie Kunst in Munich, however, she took up interior design, and began designing rooms in private homes from the 1920s onwards. From 1926 to 1928 she implemented projects for dance halls, cafés, and bars in Strasbourg— partly in collaboration with Hans Arp—and took over the design of the Galerie Goeman in Paris in 1929. Presumably seeing Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s home in Meudon as a model for a modern residence and as an ideal template for their growing collection of abstract art, Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann commissioned the artist to draw up plans. Despite the Müller-Widmanns’ seeming uncertainty about the size of their property at Fringelistrasse 16, Sophie Taeuber-Arp expressed her confidence in the
Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Equilibre, 1931 Oil on canvas, 32 x 25.5 cm Aargauer Kunsthaus Aarau, gift of the Müller-Widmann collection, Basel Photo: Jörg Müller, Aarau
14 —
— 15
2
Gerhard Schaub, Kurt Schwitters und die ‹andere› Schweiz: Unveröffentlichte Briefe aus dem Exil [Kurt Schwitters and the ‘other’ Switzerland: Unpublished letters in exile]. Berlin, 1998.
successful actress. The couple’s epistolary exchange with the artists whose work they collected was mostly conducted by Annie Müller-Widmann, as illustrated by the letters that survive from Béla Bartók, Wassily Kandinsky, Antoine Pevsner, Kurt Schwitters,2 and Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, among others. Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s thirty-five letters and cards illustrate a burgeoning friendship between the artist and addressee, which can be traced in the gradual change in the original German from the use of the formal “you” (Sie), to using the Sie form with the collector’s first name, and, finally, to the personal, familiar “you” (Du). While the topic at hand in the beginning is primarily artistic, over the years their correspondence becomes more familiar—and in exile, existential. Passing mention is made in the correspondence that survives of the project of building a new home for Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann in the Bruderholz district of Basel, although it was of great importance to Taeuber-Arp. She was not a trained architect; during her studies at the Lehr- und Versuch-Ateliers für angewandte und freie Kunst in Munich, however, she took up interior design, and began designing rooms in private homes from the 1920s onwards. From 1926 to 1928 she implemented projects for dance halls, cafés, and bars in Strasbourg— partly in collaboration with Hans Arp—and took over the design of the Galerie Goeman in Paris in 1929. Presumably seeing Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s home in Meudon as a model for a modern residence and as an ideal template for their growing collection of abstract art, Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann commissioned the artist to draw up plans. Despite the Müller-Widmanns’ seeming uncertainty about the size of their property at Fringelistrasse 16, Sophie Taeuber-Arp expressed her confidence in the
Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Equilibre, 1931 Oil on canvas, 32 x 25.5 cm Aargauer Kunsthaus Aarau, gift of the Müller-Widmann collection, Basel Photo: Jörg Müller, Aarau
14 —
— 15
Editorial Note
Translator’s Note
This edition consists of thirty-five handwritten letters and cards written by Sophie Taeuber-Arp in German and French to Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann. These letters have been translated here for the first time into English. To the extent that it is known, no letters of reply have survived. The letters are arranged chronologically. If the date to a letter is missing, its chronology was gleaned from the postmark date or content and noted in the commentary. The letters’ contents are reproduced in full, maintaining personal and time-related peculiarities in spelling and punctuation, including as it applies to personal names. Where “m” and “n” were elided, these have been resolved to “mm” and “nn.” Where appropriate, obvious misspellings were corrected and missing punctuation added. The annotations list persons by name and date of birth and death at the first mention and detail events as well as implied relevant facts. Names of women are given according to their respective civil status; in the case of married women, both their maiden and married names are given, where known. Syntactically necessary additions appear in brackets. Address details from the envelopes are included in the header to the letters. All of the postcards as well as the letters 2, 8, and 12 are reproduced here as facsimiles.
The epistolary exchange is an intimate form: language embodied in a delicate object belonging most typically to an audience of two. I’ve often considered translation to be a kind of love letter to the act of writing and reading, re-sounding one voice in another tongue as a dispatch to the broader world. So it is with great care that I’ve translated Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s letters to Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann, which are, as Walburga Krupp and Simona Martinoli note, a record of the rich relationship between the artist and collector couple. Idiosyncrasies in spelling and style that are particular to Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Jean/Hans Arp have been carried over in this translation (Sophie’s calling the duo Anni and Oscar, for example, or Jean Arp’s proclivity for writing sentences entirely in lowercase); where these idiosyncrasies are particular to the German language and its conventions in letter writing (lack of punctuation in signing off on a letter, for example, or using a period the way one does a colon in English), these have been converted appropriately to generate an equivalent effect. My translations of the thirty-five letters in this volume are from the German (with reference to the letters in the original French for those Sophie TaeuberArp wrote during the war years). Even if the English language effaces distinctions such as the shift in Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s letters from the formal Sie to the informal Du in addressing Annie Müller-Widmann, one finds ways in tone to bring forth the shift in intimacy as their relationship deepened. In reading and re-writing her voice, what comes through is the evident affection between the two women, the sincerity of their bond, as well as Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s tremendous courage and resilience amid the horrors of war in remaining dedicated to her art and finding beauty in natural forms.
Abbreviations FMA Fondazione Marguerite Arp, Locarno The catalogues of the work of Hans Arp and Sophie TaeuberArp are cited in the notes and abbreviated as follows, followed by their catalogue raisonné number: GW Carola Giedion-Welcker, Hans Arp. Stuttgart, 1957 (catalogue raisonné of the sculptures, volume I). Rau Bernd Rau, Hans Arp: Die Reliefs. Œuvre-catalogue. Stuttgart, 1981. Trier Hans Arp. Skulpturen 1957–1966 (Einleitung von Eduard Trier. Bibliografie von Marguerite ArpHagenbach. Skulpturenkatalog von François Arp), Stuttgart 1968. S/W Georg Schmidt, ed., Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Basel, 1948 (Hugo Weber, Catalogue de l’œuvre de Sophie Taeuber-Arp).
24 —
Kathleen Heil, Berlin June 2021
— 25
Editorial Note
Translator’s Note
This edition consists of thirty-five handwritten letters and cards written by Sophie Taeuber-Arp in German and French to Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann. These letters have been translated here for the first time into English. To the extent that it is known, no letters of reply have survived. The letters are arranged chronologically. If the date to a letter is missing, its chronology was gleaned from the postmark date or content and noted in the commentary. The letters’ contents are reproduced in full, maintaining personal and time-related peculiarities in spelling and punctuation, including as it applies to personal names. Where “m” and “n” were elided, these have been resolved to “mm” and “nn.” Where appropriate, obvious misspellings were corrected and missing punctuation added. The annotations list persons by name and date of birth and death at the first mention and detail events as well as implied relevant facts. Names of women are given according to their respective civil status; in the case of married women, both their maiden and married names are given, where known. Syntactically necessary additions appear in brackets. Address details from the envelopes are included in the header to the letters. All of the postcards as well as the letters 2, 8, and 12 are reproduced here as facsimiles.
The epistolary exchange is an intimate form: language embodied in a delicate object belonging most typically to an audience of two. I’ve often considered translation to be a kind of love letter to the act of writing and reading, re-sounding one voice in another tongue as a dispatch to the broader world. So it is with great care that I’ve translated Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s letters to Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann, which are, as Walburga Krupp and Simona Martinoli note, a record of the rich relationship between the artist and collector couple. Idiosyncrasies in spelling and style that are particular to Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Jean/Hans Arp have been carried over in this translation (Sophie’s calling the duo Anni and Oscar, for example, or Jean Arp’s proclivity for writing sentences entirely in lowercase); where these idiosyncrasies are particular to the German language and its conventions in letter writing (lack of punctuation in signing off on a letter, for example, or using a period the way one does a colon in English), these have been converted appropriately to generate an equivalent effect. My translations of the thirty-five letters in this volume are from the German (with reference to the letters in the original French for those Sophie TaeuberArp wrote during the war years). Even if the English language effaces distinctions such as the shift in Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s letters from the formal Sie to the informal Du in addressing Annie Müller-Widmann, one finds ways in tone to bring forth the shift in intimacy as their relationship deepened. In reading and re-writing her voice, what comes through is the evident affection between the two women, the sincerity of their bond, as well as Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s tremendous courage and resilience amid the horrors of war in remaining dedicated to her art and finding beauty in natural forms.
Abbreviations FMA Fondazione Marguerite Arp, Locarno The catalogues of the work of Hans Arp and Sophie TaeuberArp are cited in the notes and abbreviated as follows, followed by their catalogue raisonné number: GW Carola Giedion-Welcker, Hans Arp. Stuttgart, 1957 (catalogue raisonné of the sculptures, volume I). Rau Bernd Rau, Hans Arp: Die Reliefs. Œuvre-catalogue. Stuttgart, 1981. Trier Hans Arp. Skulpturen 1957–1966 (Einleitung von Eduard Trier. Bibliografie von Marguerite ArpHagenbach. Skulpturenkatalog von François Arp), Stuttgart 1968. S/W Georg Schmidt, ed., Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Basel, 1948 (Hugo Weber, Catalogue de l’œuvre de Sophie Taeuber-Arp).
24 —
Kathleen Heil, Berlin June 2021
— 25
1
To Oskar and Annie Müller-Widmann, Wartenbergstrasse 17, Basel, Switzerland, 27.10.1932 1 [Meudon] Many thanks for the invitation2 Till Friday Warm wishes, H & S Arp
Sophie Taeuber-Arp to Oskar and Annie Müller-Widmann. 27.10.1932 Postcard, handwritten (hereafter “hw”) with an illustration of Arp’s Danseuse (Dancer)
26 —
—
1
2
Postmark date, Meudon. The postcard features Hans Arp’s 1928 relief Danseuse (Dancer, Rau 164). Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp went to Basel on October 28, 1932 for the opening of the exhibition Sammlung E. Hoffmann [The E. Hoffmann Collection] in memory of Emanuel Hoffmann (b. 1896), who passed away on October 3, 1932. The businessman and art collector together with his wife, Maja Hoffmann-Stehlin, were patrons of Arp’s.
— 27
1
To Oskar and Annie Müller-Widmann, Wartenbergstrasse 17, Basel, Switzerland, 27.10.1932 1 [Meudon] Many thanks for the invitation2 Till Friday Warm wishes, H & S Arp
Sophie Taeuber-Arp to Oskar and Annie Müller-Widmann. 27.10.1932 Postcard, handwritten (hereafter “hw”) with an illustration of Arp’s Danseuse (Dancer)
26 —
—
1
2
Postmark date, Meudon. The postcard features Hans Arp’s 1928 relief Danseuse (Dancer, Rau 164). Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp went to Basel on October 28, 1932 for the opening of the exhibition Sammlung E. Hoffmann [The E. Hoffmann Collection] in memory of Emanuel Hoffmann (b. 1896), who passed away on October 3, 1932. The businessman and art collector together with his wife, Maja Hoffmann-Stehlin, were patrons of Arp’s.
— 27
From left to right: Hans Arp, Marguerite Hagenbach, Sophie Taeuber-Arp Ascona, Pentecost 1939 Fondazione Marguerite Arp, Locarno Photo: likely Hans Hagenbach
62 —
— 63
From left to right: Hans Arp, Marguerite Hagenbach, Sophie Taeuber-Arp Ascona, Pentecost 1939 Fondazione Marguerite Arp, Locarno Photo: likely Hans Hagenbach
62 —
— 63
33
To Annie Müller-Widmann, Fringelistrasse 16, Basel, Switzerland, 21.12.1941 182 Dec. 21, 1941 Château folie Grasse Dear Anni: Thank you for your letter, you’ll get a reply this week. This card, which illustrates the landscape so well even in winter, is just to tell you how much we’re thinking of you and wishing you happy holidays. How happy you all must feel to be together and that the specter of your illness is finally gone.183 Hugs from us both, Sophie Give my best to Marie.184
—
182 183
184
Postmark date, Grasse: 22.12.1941. Annie Müller-Widmann had fallen ill with tuberculosis in 1938. Marie Bürki, the Müller-Widmann’s cook.
Sophie Taeuber-Arp to Annie Müller-Widmann. 21.12.1941 Postcard, hw with illus. Jardin Public, Grasse
114 —
— 115
34
To Annie Müller-Widmann, Fringelistrasse 16, Basel, Switzerland, 27.1.1942 Jan. 27, 1942 Domaine Château folie Grasse A.[lpes] M.[aritimes] My dear Anni: Thank you for your letter. I’ll try to explain why our letters for some time now have been so few and far between. We received good news from Monsieur Lamy185 in early January, I think Hans mentioned this in a card. He’s in Marseilles and should be back tonight or tomorrow. The U.S. consulate wrote us on January 17th that the visas had arrived, go figure! The ships that are still able to depart are small Portuguese ones, sleeping quarters have been set up so that all the snoring and puking are done in unison. They’ve gone to great lengths for us in New York, apparently Hans’s brother being in Paris has made matters even more complicated than they already are.186
—
185
186
116 —
The card has not survived. Jean Lamy (1900–1982) was a physician who had specialized in a unique form of phonophoresis that combined acupuncture and sound therapy. Lamy was the son of Jeanne Schwaller-Germain, whose second marriage was to René Schwaller, whom Hans Arp knew from his youth in Strasbourg. From 1921 to 1928 the couple lived in St. Moritz, where, in 1922, they established the Station Scientifique Suhalia in Champfèr, which Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp also helped set up. The matter with Jean Lamy could not be determined. Obtaining exit papers from France became more difficult if one had relatives in the occupied zone. Arp’s brother Wilhelm Arp remained in Paris during the war. This—and the fact that there was a file on Wilhelm Arp classifying him as suspicious, issued by the authority of the military governor of Paris—may have been some cause for the delay in issuing papers for Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp. In the end, the Arps decided against emigrating to the United States, as Sophie Taeuber-Arp confessed to her sister in late May: “We had places on a ship for this month but according to the information Jean obtained in Marseille, we would have had to travel in the bilge, and beyond that the journey would take nearly six weeks. Under such circumstances, Jean couldn’t make up his mind about leaving, we would’ve had to raise almost 50,000 frs to travel in a second-class cabin. The real reason is that he’s still hoping for some kind of
Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Lignes géométriques et ondoyantes, 1941 Colored pencils and pencil on paper, 21.5 x 13.4 cm Fondazione Marguerite Arp, Locarno Photo: SIK-ISEA, Zurich (Philipp Hitz)
— 117
33
To Annie Müller-Widmann, Fringelistrasse 16, Basel, Switzerland, 21.12.1941 182 Dec. 21, 1941 Château folie Grasse Dear Anni: Thank you for your letter, you’ll get a reply this week. This card, which illustrates the landscape so well even in winter, is just to tell you how much we’re thinking of you and wishing you happy holidays. How happy you all must feel to be together and that the specter of your illness is finally gone.183 Hugs from us both, Sophie Give my best to Marie.184
—
182 183
184
Postmark date, Grasse: 22.12.1941. Annie Müller-Widmann had fallen ill with tuberculosis in 1938. Marie Bürki, the Müller-Widmann’s cook.
Sophie Taeuber-Arp to Annie Müller-Widmann. 21.12.1941 Postcard, hw with illus. Jardin Public, Grasse
114 —
— 115
34
To Annie Müller-Widmann, Fringelistrasse 16, Basel, Switzerland, 27.1.1942 Jan. 27, 1942 Domaine Château folie Grasse A.[lpes] M.[aritimes] My dear Anni: Thank you for your letter. I’ll try to explain why our letters for some time now have been so few and far between. We received good news from Monsieur Lamy185 in early January, I think Hans mentioned this in a card. He’s in Marseilles and should be back tonight or tomorrow. The U.S. consulate wrote us on January 17th that the visas had arrived, go figure! The ships that are still able to depart are small Portuguese ones, sleeping quarters have been set up so that all the snoring and puking are done in unison. They’ve gone to great lengths for us in New York, apparently Hans’s brother being in Paris has made matters even more complicated than they already are.186
—
185
186
116 —
The card has not survived. Jean Lamy (1900–1982) was a physician who had specialized in a unique form of phonophoresis that combined acupuncture and sound therapy. Lamy was the son of Jeanne Schwaller-Germain, whose second marriage was to René Schwaller, whom Hans Arp knew from his youth in Strasbourg. From 1921 to 1928 the couple lived in St. Moritz, where, in 1922, they established the Station Scientifique Suhalia in Champfèr, which Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp also helped set up. The matter with Jean Lamy could not be determined. Obtaining exit papers from France became more difficult if one had relatives in the occupied zone. Arp’s brother Wilhelm Arp remained in Paris during the war. This—and the fact that there was a file on Wilhelm Arp classifying him as suspicious, issued by the authority of the military governor of Paris—may have been some cause for the delay in issuing papers for Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp. In the end, the Arps decided against emigrating to the United States, as Sophie Taeuber-Arp confessed to her sister in late May: “We had places on a ship for this month but according to the information Jean obtained in Marseille, we would have had to travel in the bilge, and beyond that the journey would take nearly six weeks. Under such circumstances, Jean couldn’t make up his mind about leaving, we would’ve had to raise almost 50,000 frs to travel in a second-class cabin. The real reason is that he’s still hoping for some kind of
Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Lignes géométriques et ondoyantes, 1941 Colored pencils and pencil on paper, 21.5 x 13.4 cm Fondazione Marguerite Arp, Locarno Photo: SIK-ISEA, Zurich (Philipp Hitz)
— 117
Acknowledgments The Fondazione Marguerite Arp Locarno wishes to express its heartfelt thanks to everyone who lent their efforts to bringing this book into being, in particular its author Walburga Krupp and foundation board member Gabriele Lohberg. Special thanks to Duferco SA, Via Bagutti 9, 6900 Lugano and Myriam Gebert, Wollerau, for their generous support. The Fondazione Marguerite Arp collaborates with the Heinrich Gebert Kulturstiftung Appenzell.
Imprint Edited by: Fondazione Marguerite Arp Locarno Project coordination Simona Martinoli, curator Fondazione Marguerite Arp Locarno Graphic design Sabine Hahn, grafikdesign, Berlin, sh-gd.de Transcriptions Gabriele Lohberg, Krefeld (GER) Tizulu Maeda, Massagno (FR) Translations Kathleen Heil Copy editing and proofreading Lisa Schons, Colette Forder Image editing, priting, and binding DZA Druckerei zu Altenburg, Thuringia
© 2022 Fondazione Marguerite Arp, Locarno; Scheidegger & Spiess AG, Zurich; Edizioni Casagrande, Bellinzona © 2022 for the texts, the authors © 2022 ProLitteris, Zurich for all works by Jean Arp © 2022 for the images, see the individual image credits and copyright notices Verlag Scheidegger & Spiess Niederdorfstrasse 54 8001 Zürich Switzerland www.scheidegger-spiess.ch Scheidegger & Spiess is being supported by the Federal Office of Culture with a general subsidy for the years 2021–2024. All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the publisher. ISBN 978-3-03942-068-1 German edition: ISBN 978-3-03942-017-9 The Italian edition of this book is published by Edizioni Casagrande, Bellinzona: ISBN 978-88-7713-911-5