WHEN FORM MATTERS: SOPHIE TOIBER-ARP’S DADAIST MARIONETTES IN THE PLAY «KING STAG»

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to introduce the art community to Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s marionettes, created for the play «King Stag» («König Hirsch»), and to conduct an artistic analysis of them within the context of Dadaist aesthetics and avant-garde theatrical practice. The artist went down in history as one of the pioneers of abstract geometric art in Europe of the last century. A citizen of Germany, Switzerland, and France, she made a significant contribution to the development of art on the continent and played a pivotal role in shaping Swiss art. S. Toiber-Arp is considered one of the most innovative and original avant-garde artists of the 20th century - a pioneer of both Dadaism and Constructivism. She organically combined Dadaism and geometric abstraction, fine art and utilitarian objects, finding unexpected connections between seemingly incompatible phenomena. The artist did not recognize the boundaries between “high” and “applied” art and boldly demonstrated this. Her openness to various means of expression challenged traditional notions of what constitutes true creativity and what is merely craftsmanship. What mattered most to her was something else: art must be alive and relevant to everyday life. S. Toiber-Arp did not fit into any framework. She was a painter, sculptor, architect, performer, choreographer, teacher, and writer - and still found time to design textiles, stage sets, and interiors. Not because she couldn’t choose just one thing, but because for her, all of this was part of a single creative world. As the creator of the marionettes for the play «King Stag» she made a radical break with the tradition of puppet theater: none of her figures were miniature copies of humans. The artist transferred elements of her textile art - the square, circle, and triangle - into three-dimensional forms that became the bodies of the puppets. Their inhuman appearance commented on the inhumanity of militarism and imperialism, while the absurdity of their forms reflected the absurdity of contemporary European culture. At the same time, some viewers saw a mystical truth in them, believing that their design was guided by a “spiritual center.” The marionettes for «King Stag», along with the surviving props, entered the collection of the Museum of Decorative Arts (Kunstgewerbemuseum), now the Museum of Design Zurich (Museum für Gestaltung Zürich), as early as October 1919. These marionettes are regularly exhibited in the world’s most famous museums, from Basel, London, Paris, and Madrid to Oslo, Washington, and New York, where they invariably attract the public’s enthusiastic attention. Solo exhibitions of S. Toiber-Arp’s work have only added to her fame and further fueled interest in the puppets she created. At the same time, they can be admired and studied both in the context of avant-garde art and the Dada movement - after all, her works, which broke with all the traditions of the genre, incorporated the experience of fine and applied arts as well as expressive dance.