Kunsthaus Zürich
Zürich, CH

circa 1918

Although employing the format and colors reminiscent of religious painting, Sophie Taeuber creates here a composition that is entirely abstract. It utilizes a series of geometric shapes—repeated rectangles and triangles—and a variety of colors, including light blue, yellow-orange, dark red, brown, gold, and pink. This artwork can be viewed as an assertion of a certain spirituality that emerged within the Dada movement and as a manifesto of geometric abstract painting. This aspect is emphasized by its large dimensions (see W. Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, and in Painting in Particular (1911), Gallimard, Paris, 1988).