Exhibition Artist Sophie Täuber designed lace patterns for Lauterbrunnen

Her portrait adorned the 50s note and she was one of the outstanding abstract artists of the 20th century: Sophie Täuber-Arp. The Kunstmuseum Thun is dedicating a cabinet exhibition to her early work. This complements the exhibition "Gunta Stölzl and Johannes Itten Textile Universes".

At the heart of the cabinet exhibition are newly discovered patterns for lace-making in the Bernese Oberland, as the Thun Museum of Art writes in a press release.

In 1915, Täuber-Arp supported the "Lace Industry" project initiated by her colleague Alice Frey-Amsler to enable women in the Lauterbrunnen Valley to earn a higher income by renewing the lace-making tradition.

Lace has been made in the Lauterbrunnen Valley since the 17th century. The first simple works were probably made from horsehair. In the 18th and 19th centuries, lace-making became an actual cottage industry, as can be seen in the Lauterbrunnen Valley Museum. Women contributed to the meagre income of the mountain farmers with their homework.

In 1912, an association was founded, which brought improvements to lace-making at home. Progress was made in the training of homeworkers and the purchase of high-quality materials. The association also regulated the rights and duties of the lace makers through employment contracts.

Even though the days of working from home in front of the bobbin lace pillow are long gone, the delicate craft has survived in Lauterbrunnen to this day. There is still a bobbin lace workshop dedicated to the old tradition.

Lace-making requires a bobbin cushion and spindle-shaped bobbins to which the fine yarn is attached. The lace is created by crossing, twisting and linking the threads. How the bobbins are twisted or crossed with each other is determined by the so-called bobbin lace pattern.

SDA