Puppets, Purses and Paintings, Too: An Overlooked Artist With Range Sophie Taeuber-Arp blurred the boundaries between fine art and applied art, but died early without the recognition she deserved. A major new exhibition aims to fix that. Sophie Taeuber-Arp, in 1920. She had “a deep and primeval” urge to “make the things we own more beautiful,” she wrote.Credit...Nic Aluf; Stiftung Arp e.V. By Catherine Hickley May 11, 2021 BASEL, Switzerland — Just over a century ago, during another pandemic, the Swiss Marionette Theatre in Zurich closed. The play “King Stag” ended its run in September 1918, after three sparsely attended performances. The Spanish flu kept its audience away.