On Sonia Delaunay: Les couleurs de l’abstraction

Sonia Delaunay Les couleurs de l’abstraction Musée d'art moderne (Paris XVIe) October 17, 2014 - February 22, 2015 Published at Hyperallergiic.com as A Major Exhibition Considers the Colorful Legacy of Sonia Delaunay http://hyperallergic.com/171415/a-major-exhibition-considers-the-colorful-legacy-ofsonia-delaunay/ In our period of the rampant merging of art and fashion, it is refreshing to revisit where this hybridization more or less began in modernism with the first retrospective since 1967 of Sonia Terk Delaunay (born Sophie Stern or Illinichtna Sara Stern). It is generally a richly colorful exhibition of applied poetic abstraction, with four hundred rather stylistically consistent works that stretch from the Belle Époque to the 1970s. It includes her bold paintings and monumental murals, gouaches, prints, posters, clothing, bindings, artists’ books, household and fashion items, textiles and three reconstructions of immersive environments. The majority her work is based in the theory of simultanisme, a proclaiming of the constructive and dynamic power of color. The show illustrates the fertile uniqueness of Sonia Delaunay by stressing her sustained dialogue with simultanisme even as she takes on the connection of art and technology by shuffling back and forth between various art forms. Her consistency of formal research, based in the synthetic, makes this show especially pertinent to our time. Starting with her Fauvist color inspired works (that use various degrees of abstraction) Ms. Delaunay appears to be both an inventive and prolific creator, taking inspiration from the dynamism of modern life. She is a major precursor of a color abstraction that takes textiles and fashion seriously. As such, I discovered her here clearly as a creator of a house of fashion that went so far as to resurface a sports car so as to match a dress. I noticed, in particular, a superb dress she made for Nancy Cunard that was adorned with rhythmic, joyful colors.

“Studio REP Modèles devant voiture simultanée” (1925) © Pracusa 2013057 © BNF Robert mallet-Stevens © Adagp, Paris 2014 Jacques Heim © DR

“Coat for Gloria Swanson” (c. 1924) Broderie de laine Collection particulière © Pracusa 2013057

The show unravels chronologically, walking me step-by-step through the advancement of the artist, establishing her specific place within the European avant-garde (her role as a pioneer in color-based abstraction) by highlighting the importance of her work to the applied arts. Born 1885 in now war-torn Odessa (Ukraine) of a foreman father and a mother who could barely read, Ms. Delaunay discovered art through her maternal uncle Henri Terk, a wealthy member of the Jewish bourgeoisie in St. Petersburg. In 1904, she attended the Fine Arts Academy in Karlsruhe, Germany before coming to Paris in 1906, where she discovered Paul Gauguin and the Fauves: dedicating herself to the beauty of pure tones and solid colors. In 1907, Ms. Delaunay met Wilhelm Uhde, an art dealer, critic and early collector of modernist painting by Picasso and Matisse. Their friendly marriage allows her to acquire French nationality. After finding her authentic husband, Robert Delaunay (who she married in 1910 and who died in 1941), they jointly proclaimed (in 1921) the coming of a new art of Orphism based on the constructive and dynamic power of color and the simultaneous fusing of motion-with-color. In 1913 the Delaunays showed their works in the Salon des Indépendants and the Herbst Salon, the latter being the first Orphist Salon, which also hosted works by Picabia, Metzinger, Gleizes, Léger, and Futurist painters. Unlike others associated with Orphism, the Delaunays would return to this style (what they thought of as a universal language) throughout their lives, creating works that featured the joyous dance of rhythmic color. Ms. Delaunay’s work has a tendency towards non-representation that relies heavily on the fresh sensuality of colors in smooth transitions between forms (a concept derived from Neo-Impressionist color theory).

"Couverture de Berceau" (1911) MNAM © Pracusa 2013057

“Prismes électriques” (1913-1914) © Pracusa 2013057 © Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, Gift of Mr. Theodore Racoosin

“Couverture du catalogue de l'exposition de Stockholm, Autoportrait” (1916) © Pracusa 2013057 © BNF

Surprised by the First World War while in Spain, the Delaunays decided to extend their stay and settle in Vigo where Sonia, a keen observer of flamenco music and dance, executed a series of large format paintings while also taking on theater costume and fashion projects. The following decade marked the development of a period of semi-abstraction for Ms. Delaunay, as evidenced by “Propeller design for the Palace of the Air, International Exhibition of Arts and Technology in Modern Life, Paris” (1937), first presented at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (International Exhibition of Arts and Technology in Modern Life) in 1937.

“Propeller design for the Palace of the Air, International Exhibition of Arts and Technology in Modern Life, Paris” (1937) Tempera on canvas © Pracusa 2013057 © Skissernas Museum, Lund, Sweden/Emma Krantz

In the post-war period, Ms. Delaunay undergoes a profound renewal that culminates in the late 1960s, often calling on the free rhythm heard in jazz.

“Composition pour jazz, 2e série, No F 344", Paris” (1952) © Pracusa 2013057 © Courtesy Galerie Zlotowski, Paris

“Rythme Couleur (Color Rhythm)” (1964) © Pracusa 2013057 © Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris / RogerViollet

In our time where many contemporary power artists have disgustingly worked for luxury brands, a move that has, in effect, revealed the high-end art market itself as a luxury goods business, Sonia Delaunay’s show was particularly revealing of the importance of scale. The connection between art and fashion, in-and-of-itself, is not very problematic (nor very major). It is the exploitation of that connection, on the global corporate scale, that chafes.

Joseph Nechvatal