ART-PRESENTATION: The EY Exhibition-Sonia Delaunay
Sonia Delaunay was a Russian-born French artist, who spent most of her working life in Paris and, with her husband Robert Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colors and geometric shapes. Her work extends to painting, textile design and stage set design. She was the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in 1964.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Tate Modern Archive
Sonia Delaunay was a key figure in the Parisian avant-garde, whose vivid and colorful work spanned painting, fashion and design. This retrospective at Tate Modern offers a radical reassessment of Delaunay’s importance as an artist, showcasing her originality and creativity across the twentieth century. Sonia Delaunay came to Paris in 1906. She met and married the artist Robert Delaunay, with whom she developed “Simultaneism” (abstract compositions of dynamic contrasting colors and shapes). Her work expressed the energy of modern urban life, celebrating the birth of electric street lighting and the excitement of contemporary ballets and ballrooms. The exhibition shows how the artist dedicated her life to experimenting with color and abstraction, bringing her ideas off the canvas and into the world through tapestry, textiles, mosaic and fashion. Delaunay premiered her first “simultaneous dress” of bright patchwork colors in 1913 and opened a boutique in Madrid in 1918. Her Atelier Simultané in Paris went on to produce radical and progressive designs throughout the ‘20s & ‘30s. The exhibition reveals how Delaunay’s designs presented her as a progressive woman synonymous with modernity, embroidering poetry onto fabric, turning her apartment into a three-dimensional collage. The diverse inspirations behind Delaunay’s work are also explored, from the highly personal approach to color which harked back to her childhood in Russia, to the impact of her years in Spain and Portugal. Also the modern technology provided a major source of inspiration in her career, from the Trans-Siberian Railway to the airplane, and from the Eiffel Tower to the electric light bulb. It also includes her vast seven-meter murals “Motor, Dashboard and Propeller”, created for the 1937 International Exposition in Paris. Following her husband’s death in 1941, Sonia Delaunay’s work took on more formal freedom, including rhythmic compositions in angular forms and harlequin colors, which in turn inspired geometric tapestries, carpets and mosaics.
Info: The EY Exhibition: Sonia Delaunay, Curating: Juliet Bingham, Assistant Curating: Juliette Rizzi, Tate Modern, Bankside, London, Duration: 15/4-9/8/15, Days & Hours: Sun-Thu: 10:00-18:00, Fri-Sat: 10:00-22:00, www.tate.org.uk
