Intimate Collaborations

This compelling examination of the work and lives of Expressionist artist Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Munter and Dadaists Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber illuminates the roles of gender and the applied arts in abstraction's early days. Both artist couples, like Expressionism and Dada more generally, [...]
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This compelling examination of the work and lives of Expressionist artist Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Munter and Dadaists Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber illuminates the roles of gender and the applied arts in abstraction's early days. Both artist couples, like Expressionism and Dada more generally, strived to transcend the fragmented individualism promoted by capitalism. Through abstraction and by unsettling the boundaries between the decorative and fine arts, they negotiated tensions between their philosophical aspirations and the commercial materiality of their production. Both pairs were feminist - the women ambitious and the men supportive of their work - but theirs was a feminism that embraced differences between the sexes. This innovative look at the personal relationships of two influential artist couples shows how everyday life - mundane concerns intermingled and continuous with spiritual and intellectual endeavours - influenced the development of abstraction.