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Sonia Delaunay

"Beauty does not have the constraints of meaning."

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Notes of biography

Sonia Delaunay was born to Gradshik (Ukraine, Russia) in 1885. Sara Ilinitchna Stern, said Sonia Stern, is adopted by his uncle Henri Terk in 1890. She saw regularly the Schmidt-Reuter’s studio in Karlsruhe from 1903 till 1904, then the Academy of the Palette in Paris where she settled down in 1905. She painted then portraits and bare Fauves. Her first personal exhibition is organized in 1908. After a first marriage, she married the painter Robert Delaunay in 1910 which she contemplated as a poet expressing himself with colors. She followed her husband on the roads of the abstraction, beginning a canvas cycle and drawings where pure colours became plans which engendered forms built by the depth of connections between colours. Sonia Delaunay attempted to transmit the movement and the light. From 1913, the artist was interested in creating colored fabrics.
The couple settled down in Madrid in 1914, then in Portugal in1915 (works on the subjects of the flamenco, the tango, etc.), and came back in Paris 5 years later. Sonia Delaunay, from 1913 till 1935, dedicated herself essentially to applied arts (pillows, waistcoats, dresses, lampshade, etc.). Also, she made bindings, covers and illustrations of books. Her "marriage" with the poetry of Blaise Cendrars (1913) for « La Prose du Transsibérien et la petite Jehanne de France » is considered as a masterpiece in the art of the book illustrated in the XX ° century. She opened a decoration shop (« Casa Sonia »), and then created, with the dressmaker Jacques Heim, the «simultaneous Shop» for the international Exhibition of the decorative arts (Paris, in 1925). The artist became a specialist in clothing art and in the influence of the painting on it.
In the 30s, the couple joined the group Abstraction-Creation which defended the not representational art. From 1935 till 1937, she came back to the painting and made wall panels. The International Exhibition of the arts and techniques (in 1937, Paris) was the occasion for the upholders of the total art to give a public dimension to the abstraction; the couple participated actively in the collective great adventure of the art in the street, encouraged by the Popular Front.
Robert Delaunay died in 1941, and Sonia retreated to Grasse till the end of the war. In 1946, she was a co-founder of the Salon of the New Realities and exhibited with the group concrete Art. The group Espace was also originated from her.
Always faithful to the pure colour, excited by the law of the simultaneous contrasts, she made series, created mosaics, stained glasses, carpets and tapestries, conceived decorations and costumes for the theater, illustrated books. If careers of Robert and Sonia Delaunay are inseparable, their respective work reflected their personalities.
Sonia Delaunay died in Paris in 1979.

Artists on display

The art and the artists display: proclamations, galleries, museums, personal or collective exhibitions. On walls or in shop windows, wise or rebels, posters warn, argue, show. Some were specially conceived by an artist for such or such event, other, colder, have only the letter.

Some were created in lithographic technic, most are simple offset reproductions. They are many those who like collecting these rectangles of paper, monochrome or in games of colours, in matt paper or brilliant, with many words or almost dumb.

We are happy also to be able to greet, by this pages, mythical galleries as those of Denise René, Louis Carré, Claude Bernard, Berheim Jeune, Maeght, Pierre Loeb and others.

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Complete work(s)

Complete work(s)
* « 114 œuvres de la dation Charles Delaunay », B. Leal, Centre Pompidou-MAM de Paris, 2003 All the complete works

Bibliographic track and more

To read about the artist :
  • « Sonia Delaunay », rétrospective, MNAM, Paris 1967
  • « Sonia Delaunay. Sa vie, son œuvre 1885-1979 », B. Dorival, Ed. J. Damase, Pari
  • « R. et S. Delaunay : le centenaire », MAM de la Ville de Paris, 1985
  • « Sonia Delaunay, magique magicienne » D. Desanti, Ramsay, 1988
  • « Sonia Delaunay, sa vie, son œuvre », J. Damase, Hermann, 1995
  • « R. et S. Delaunay. Naissance de l'art abstrait », G. Bernier, Ed. J.-C. Lattès, 1995
  • « R. et S. Delaunay, le centenaire », cat. d'expo., MAM de Paris, Ed. Paris Musées, 2000
  • « Sonia Delaunay », Sylvie Delpech, Caroline Leclerc, Ed. Palette, 2005
  • « S. Delaunay - Ateliers simultané 1923-1934», M. Bianchi, A. Malochet, Ed. Skira, 2006
  • « S. D., les couleurs de l'abstraction », collectif, MAM de Paris, Ed. Paris Musées, 2014
To read from the artist :
  • « Nous irons jusqu’au soleil », Ed. Laffont, Paris, 1978
  • « Anthologie des écrits sur l'Art », Paul Eluard, Ed. Cercle d'Art, 1987
Website :
www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/delaunay

More :


Art movements

+ ORPHISM / 1912-1920 / August Macke, Patrick Henry Bruce, Morgan Russell, Stanton MacDonald Wright
+ ABSTRACTION-CREATION / 1931-1938 / Etienne Béothy, Frantisek Kupka, Piet Mondrian, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Georges Vantongerloo, etc.
+ NEW REALITIES / 1946-1956 / Etienne Béothy, Marcelle Cahn, etc.
+ ESPACE GROUP / 1951 / Felix Del Marle, Etienne Béothy, etc.
All art movements

See & discover

Beyond works currently in stock, it seemed to me useful to combine business with pleasure by letting you discover others works by artists in my gallery. These artworks, now sold or removed from our website, have been in our stock in the past.

These pages will undoubtedly make it possible for some of you to associate an image with its title or the other way round, for others it will be a good time to discover more on such and such artist. For the sake of confidentiality – the pieces being no longer available – we won't display neither their numbering or their price. For whatever reason, make sure to visit this amazing art database with to date 6441 online works just for your pleasure! Michelle Champetier

See & discover