She was born in Strasbourg, where she had her first drawing lessons. In 1915-18, she moved to Berlin to continue her drawing studies. In 1920, she had her first trip to Paris where she was strongly influenced by the works of Cézanne. She studied at Zurich University and then in Paris at the Académie Moderne. In 1925, at the Grand Chaumière, she began drawing naked figures and still lifes in an abstract-cubist manner. In the 30s, her work was marked by Surrealism and, in 1947-48, she opened a studio in Paris. She then mainly painted small oil paintings. In 1952, her drawings were mainly geometrical and there is a certain return to the 1925 works. Her collages appear in this period and are a particular feature, along with sculpture, of her 60s work. Between 1952 and 1997, she had several one-man shows in Paris, London, Milan, Turin, Geneva, Zurich and Stockholm. She has also participated in several collective exhibitions, namely the International Exhibition of Modern Art, organised by the Société Anonyme at the Brooklyn Museum in 1926; with the group Cercle et Carré at Galerie 23 in Paris in 1930 and the Exposition-Position at the Denise René Gallery in Paris in 1969, among many others.
