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Sonia Delaunay

Art genre: Cubism, Orphism.
Art media: Paintings. Fabric, costume, interior and theatre design.

Life: Born in 1885, the daughter of a Jewish factory worker in the Ukraine. Adopted at the age of five by a wealthy uncle who gave her a privileged childhood in St Petersburg. Moved to Paris in 1905. Married art dealer and collector Willhelm Uhde in 1908; divorced him to marry the artist Robert Delaunay in 1910. Moved to Spain in 1914 to help her son recover from a serious illness, and opened her first boutique in the Hotel Ritz, Madrid. Returned to Paris in 1920 and continued to design clothing and soft furnishing until the end of the decade when financial problems forced her to close her workshops. She started painting again and worked with her husband to produce decorations for major exhibitions. After her husband died in 1941, she continued to work until her death in Paris in 1979. Many of her designs were produced in large numbers - she wanted to democratise art and make it accessible to ordinary people.

Work: Sonia was first encouraged to paint by a friend of the family, the German Impressionist Max Liebermann. She studied drawing and anatomy at the University of Karlsruhe where she encountered the work of the French Impressionists. In 1905, she moved to Paris and studied at the Académie de la Palette where she produced figurative works using intense colour. Held her first solo exhibition in 1908 but gave up painting after marrying Robert Delaunay (perhaps not wanting to compete with her husband) and focussed on handicrafts and design. She and Robert are credited with founding the Orphism movement, which used strong colours and geometric shapes. In 1913, she created ‘simultaneous clothing' and pioneered a technique where designs were placed close to each other and therefore influenced each other. She is associated with patterns such as polka dots and zigzags. Whilst living in Spain, she made costumes for the Russian dancer Diaghilev's ballet Cléopâtre and went on to complete a number of commissions designing interiors, costumes, and decors for the theatre. When she returned to Paris, she became involved with the Dada and Surrealism movements. In 1922 she designed ‘curtain poems', ‘dress poems' and ‘vest poems' covered with lettering. She opened two boutiques to market her clothing and soft furnishing, and by the end of the decade employed thirty workers. In 1936 she and Robert Delaunay produced 25,000 square metres of murals as part of the decorations for the 1937 Exposition Universelle. After Robert died she gave 40 of his paintings and 58 of her own to the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris. The donation was exhibited in the Louvre in 1964, making her the first living woman to be exhibited in the museum.

Find out more:
www.artcyclopaedia.com
www.en.wikipedia.org
www.spaightwoodgalleries.com (good visuals)

 

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Art Dossiers