Eva Afuhs Libri

Art historians regard Hermann Obrist (1863–1927) as one of the most influential founders and visionaries of the art nouveau movement in Germany. His diverse oeuvre includes tapestries, ceramics, furniture designs, metal work, and sculptures including monuments and fountains. Hermann Sculpture, Space, Abstraction around 1900 presents for the first time in English the entire scope of Obrist’s work. This vibrantly illustrated volume presents exemplary work from each period of Obrist’s career. In addition to the illustrations, the book includes essays by expert critics who investigate Obrist’s ideas and concepts, the inspirations for abstract designs that he derived from natural forms and phenomena, and his plans for tombs and monuments. Though many of Obrist’s designs for fountains were unrealized and the majority of his tombs and monuments have been destroyed, this comprehensive volume documents the entire collection of plaster models and photographs for both unrealized and destroyed sculpture work. Created to accompany exhibitions at the Museum Bellerive in Zurich and at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Hermann Sculpture, Space, Abstraction around 1900 is an informative collection that will fascinate scholars and historians of the art nouveau movement.

Swiss-born artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889–1943) ranks among the pioneers of the classical avant-garde in the first half of the twentieth century. The work of this remarkably versatile and gifted artist covers the universal range of the modernist movement, from applied and fine art to dance and architecture, from interior design to teaching. This richly illustrated volume chronicles Taeuber-Arp’s multifaceted career—with an emphasis on her design and architectural oeuvre.Featuring rarely seen architectural drawings and furniture designs, Sophie Taeuber-Arp traces the artist’s life from her beginnings as a dance student of Rudolf von Laban and her involvement in the Dada movement in Zurich to her marriage to French sculptor Jean Arp and her subsequent association with the Swiss Werkbund , to her eventual flight from the Nazis in France and return to Switzerland. Essays by prominent curators and art historians place Taeuber-Arp’s career in context, making this the definitive book on an extraordinary modernist figure.