We round up the reviews for the Tate Modern’s exhibition exploring the work of the abstract artist and designer.
The Observer: ***** “To see her work at Tate Modern is to be immediately uplifted. The show opens with small watercolours that play glowing rectangles against triangles, squares and discs. They look like the art of their time; think of Malevich, Mondrian or Klee. And Taeuber-Arp is an abstract artist first to last. But these enchanting arrays always carry humorous hints of reality – a quirky face, a tube of lipstick, wafts of summer scent, comical boats and knights on horseback.”
The Guardian: **** “I wish Taeuber-Arp had lived longer and continued to develop. Now, her art feels like a posthumous conversation with artists who have come after. That’s where her art lives.”
Evening Standard: ***** “There is, in all Taeuber-Arp does, an abiding sense of movement. In one of many thrilling rooms, we encounter her wooden sculptural reliefs. From across the space, Relief (1936) looks like a “ping” painting, and is wonderful enough. But as you close in and move around it, you see that the circles taper into cones and cast shadows which throw the composition into a delightful, vibrant spatial flux. These are living things, indeed.”
Culture Whisper: **** “this joyful retrospective at Tate Modern should go some way to restoring her name as a true innovator and visionary.”
The Independent: *** “This unfairly relegated artist, who created visionary textiles and some of the first truly abstract images, almost gets the show she deserves.”
Time Out: “And then it all stops. In 1943, Taeuber-Arp died of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. And that’s it. The show ends, abruptly, suddenly. No fanfare, nothing, it all just whimpers out. Which is a shame, but it’s a quiet end to show about an artist who’s genuinely worth making some noise about.”
The Telegraph: *** “Bar a few memorable exceptions, Tate Modern’s exhibition, the first British retrospective for Taeuber-Arp, feels underwhelming.”
The Times: **** “You tap into this sense of joy at a major Tate Modern retrospective, the first by this artist to come to the UK. But don’t expect grandeur or drama or painterly exuberance.”
The exhibition will be on display at the Tate Modern until the 17th October.