SONIA DELAUNAY

Provenance:
- Galerie Proarta, Zurich (with the label on the reverse).
- Private collection, Zurich.

In 1909, after almost six years in Paris and a failed marriage with the art dealer Wilhelm Uhde, Sonia Terk met and fell in love with Robert Delaunay, an artist of the same age. The couple married in 1910. Her very close connection with her husband was not only emotional, but also artistic, and thus began a very stimulating time for the work of Sonia Delaunay. In 1912, the couple developed Orphism, an abstract painting style based on Cubism, dominated by circular structures. Simultaneous contrasts are generated in vivid colours based on the colour scheme of the chemist Eugène Chevreul. Thus, colours appears different depending on their adjacent colours. The present work, painted on both sides, beautifully shows this typical style of Sonja Delaunay and use of colour contrasts.

Sonja Delaunay developed into one of the best-known representatives of abstract painting and remained faithful to it, even more so than her husband. In addition to her skill for painting, Delaunay was an all-round talent. She designed clothes, furniture, and sometimes even cars. In 1941, when her husband and art partner died about 38 years before her, she continued to be artistically active. "I always changed everything around me… I made my first white walls so our paintings would look better. I designed my furniture; I have done everything. I have lived my art."