About Sofie Dawo
Textile artist
Sofie Dawo was head of the class for weaving and fabric printing and deputy director of the Staatliche Werkkunstschule Saarbrücken in 1961. After the founding of the Saar University of Fine Arts, she taught there until 1989.
Sofie Dawo studied textile design at the State School of Arts and Crafts in Saarbrücken from 1948-52. She then designed works for industry and passed her master's examination at the weaving school in Sindelfingen in 1955.
Based on the principles of the Bauhaus, she developed her own forms of expression. She developed her textile objects and reliefs from the woven surface into three-dimensional space. To this end, she experimented with a wide range of materials, from various types of wool, metals and foils to plastic.
She is one of the most progressive textile artists of the 20th century.
Written by: Dr Jutta Schwan, art historian in the cultural management of the Saarpfalz district
Published: 03.09.2025; Last updated: 30.03.2026.
Read more / Literature
Dawo, Sofie: Textil-Design, in: 30 Jahre gestalterische Ausbildung. "Festschrift" of the Saarland University of Applied Sciences. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary, Saarbrücken 1976, pp. 133-138.
Enzweiler, Jo (ed.): Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Band 1. Saarbrücken District Centre. Saarbrücken 1997, pp. 158-160.
Huth-Fox, Waltraud: Dawo, Sofie, in: Künstler*innenlexikon Saar des Instituts für Aktuelle Kunst im Saarland, online at<https://institut-aktuelle-kunst.de/kuenstlerlexikon/dawo-sofie>[last accessed: 27 August 2025].
Jochum, Hans-Peter / Rodgers, Jett: Sofie Dawo - Eine textile Revolte / A Textile Subversion, Berlin 2024.
Sofie Dawo / Dorothea Zech. Two textile artists from the Saarland. [Catalogue for the exhibition Sofie Dawo, Dorothea Zech - Two Ways of Textile Design, 20 July - 27 August 2006]. Saarländisches Künstlerhaus Saarbrücken, 2006.
Scharwath, Günter: The great artist encyclopaedia of the Saar region, Saarbrücken 2017, p. 174
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