Abstract Art Activities - Inspired by Tate Modern's Sophie Taeuber Arp Exhibition

Liat Rosenthal, Senior Creative Producer at Tate Modern, shares some crafty ideas inspired by Sophie Taeuber Arp - abstract artists, dada divas and modernist masterminds. Enjoy her truly iconic artwork and create your very own delightful designs… 

About the Artist...

Whether it was crafting modernist puppets, exploring embroidery, creating costumes or perfecting paintings, Sophie Taeuber Arp’s work fused art and design, producing abstract work that spanned art forms and still feels fun, fresh and playful today.

Activity One: Cheers! Geometric ‘Glass’ Cups

Sophie Taeuber Arp loved creating beautiful objects for the home, from furniture and textile designs to incredible stained glass windows with bold colours and shapes illuminated by natural light. 

✂️ To create your own geometric inspired item, you’ll need a plastic cup (any colour), glue, scissors and paper. It’s best to use colourful translucent paper if possible - for example tissue paper, tracing paper, cellophane.

🔵 Cut the colourful paper into different geometric shapes - circles, triangles and squares are perfect. A rhombus or trapezoid for the more adventurous artist.

🌈 Explore layering the different shapes and colours on to the cup until you’ve found a pattern that you like - then use the glue to stick on your shapes. 

🥛 Then simply pour yourself a drink and enjoy. Cheers!

Activity Two: Say What? Dada Poem

‘Dada’ was an artistic movement known for its sense of play, chaos and untamed radical spirit. Why not try creating your own nonsensical Dadaist Poem?

✂️ Simply cut out words, symbols and images from existing magazines, newspapers, packaging - anything that’s available to cut up and reuse. 

📰 Next, start to arrange the words and images to form the lines of the poem - not sure where to place the words? That’s fine - just make it up!

📣 How does your poem sound when you read it aloud? Try speaking, singing or whistling your poem - this is how the Dadaist would perform their poems!

Activity Three: Wear It! Headband

Sophie Taeuber Arp enjoyed creating her own costumes and getting dressed up for a party. Try creating your own headband inspired by Taeuber-Arp’s colourful compositions. 

🟡 Use a simple headband as the base, then cut out a card circle (or any other shape) to form the base. You’ll need to attach the base to the headband by folding one edge of the card shape around the hairband, and then attaching it to the other side with tape/ glue/ staples. 

✂️ Next, the fun bit - cut out lots of different geometric shapes from various materials.

🎉 Be bold and playful! Stick them onto the card base and wear them out to a party!

Activity Four: Necklace

To make a spectacular necklace inspired by textiles, patterns and prints, you’ll need card, scissors, string, material and glue/tape.

🟧 Roll up small squares of card to make tube shapes. You can either make these all the same size, or experiment with different sized shapes.

🧶 Next, thread them onto your string. You might want to use a bit of tape to hold them in place.

🌈 The last part is the most fun - select different materials to decorate the cardboard tubes. It’s interesting to mix different colours, patters and textures.

Sophie Taeuber Arp will be at Tate Modern until 17th October 2021. Visit the Tate website to find out more.

Share your creations with us by tagging @FantasticForFamilies and #FantasticForFamilies on social or send us your photos to info@fantasticforfamilies.com. If you enjoyed these activities, we’d also highly recommend Meet the Artist: Sophie Taeuber-Arp by Zoé Whitley and Lesley Barnes, which is brimming with activities inspired by the artist.