Sonia delaunay

Sarah Eliivna Stern (Hradyzk, 1885-Paris, 1979), better known as Sonia Delaunay, was a French nationalized Ukrainian painter and designer. Together with her husband Robert Delaunay, she was a great representative of abstract art and creators of simultaneity.

Childhood and training

She was born on November 14, 1885 into a very modest family that already had three children. Given the impossibility of taking care of the girl, the family sent her to the house of her maternal uncles Anna and Heinrich Terk who had no children, at first they welcomed her and finally legally adopted her. Her uncle was a prestigious lawyer in Saint Petersburg, and an art lover, he owned a large collection of paintings from the Barbizon School, and Sarah Sophie (Sonia) grew up surrounded by works of art and enjoying the cultural atmosphere of the city. She spent vacations in Finland, Switzerland, Germany and Italy where she also visited museums.In 1903, the Terk family sent her to Germany to continue her studies at the University of Karlsruhe, and it was there that she discovered modern painting. She studied drawing at this institution with Schmitd-Reuter. Two years later she moved to Paris and enrolled at the Academie de la Palette, where she had fellow studio members Amédée Ozenfant, André Dunoyer de Segonzac and Jean Louis Boussingault. During this time she began in the world of engraving at the hands of Grossman.

Fauve times and new friends

From 1907 we see in his paintings the influence of German expressionism, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, such as Philomène, Jeune finlandaise or Yellow Nude. This stage lasted about a year and he soon opted for the fauve style. In 1908 he held an exhibition of his Fauvist-style paintings at the Wilhelm Uhde Gallery, where he met Robert Delaunay.

Sonia Delaunay, circa 1910.

To avoid family pressure that required her to return to Russia, she agreed to a marriage of convenience with Wilhelm Uhde, and they married in 1909 in London. Uhde introduced Sonia to the artistic circles frequented by Braque, Picasso, Derain and Vlaminck. She there she met Robert Delaunay. They soon realized that they shared the same artistic concerns. The relationship between the two artists was consolidated, and in 1910 Sonia divorced Uhde and married Robert Delaunay. He encouraged her to decant her research and her works towards the applied arts, and in a way, Sonia abandons painting as a means of expression and delves into these other artistic techniques. This change of direction in her production will cause both Sonia and Robert Delaunay to switch to pure abstraction following different paths although related to each other, and enter the history of art in different and unequal categories.

Simultaneous marriage

The couple settled in the Rue des Grands Augustins, where they maintained a workshop until 1935. And around the Delaunay-Terk marriage a circle of painters, musicians and writers was formed, including Apollinaire.

Coinciding with the birth of her son Charles, Sonia created her first abstract work, a patchwork quilt for her son's crib. Made with scraps of clothing that combined a series of contrasting colors. Robert identified the quilt with Russian folk art, but family friends and members of the artistic circle that surrounded them did not hesitate to recognize the principles of cubism that the textile work reflected and to highlight the combination of unique colors that he had made. sonia.

From that moment on, and encouraged by the admiration she had aroused among her fellow artists, she began to design small decorative objects with bright colors, first for the house, to meet their needs, but little by little she was designing objects for his friends and members of the circle of artists who frequented his house. She painted her first Simultaneous Contrasts, and created her first collage-based bindings for the 'Books She Loves'; (Rimbaud, Mallarmé or Apollinaire). She became close friends with Blaise Cendrars, for whom she made the binding of the book Easter in New York and later illustrated the poem La Prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France . During this time she also made several covers for Der Sturm magazine, while making the first simultaneous models for her (vests and suits worn by her and Robert). In 1912 she returned to painting, although it was not a return to exhibitions. Indeed, her fame had spread rapidly throughout Western Europe, but she was considered more of a commercial designer than an artist. Sonia applied the principles of simultaneity to a wide range of materials and objects, from pendants, paintings, fabrics, book covers to household objects.

In 1913, he participated in the First Autumn Salon in Berlin, where he exhibited some twenty paintings and objects. A year later he participated in the Salon des Indépendants in Paris where he exhibited his Electric Prisms. She designed several advertising posters for brands such as Dubonnet, Zèntih or Chocolat and continued to collaborate with Cendrars, who dedicated the poem Sur la robe ella a un corps to her, inspired by the simultaneous dresses from Sonya.

Stay in the Iberian Peninsula: painting and objects

In the summer of 1914, the Delaunays were on vacation in Fuenterrabía. When the First World War broke out, they decided to stay in Spain, since Robert had been declared useless for military service, and they settled in Madrid. During this period Sonia begins the series of paintings Chanteurs de Flamenco. The following year, they went to Lisbon and rented a house in Vila do Conde, which they shared with Eduardo Vianna and Sam Halpert. During this stay in Portugal they met up with Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, whom they had met in Paris, and they also came into contact with other Portuguese artists such as José Pacheco and José de Almada-Negreiros. Sonia, who had begun to study the relationship between light and movement in 1913, discovered a new dimension of light in Spain and this sensation was intensified in Portugal, a light "unencumbered by gray that exalts the color that he has become an entity in himself.” He began a period of very intense activity, recovering figurative themes and everyday images, where he expresses this influence of light in the colors of his compositions. She exhibited in Stockholm, at the Nya Konstgalleriet, and made the catalog cover. She also made several covers for Vogue magazine and created ceramic objects. She began working with large compositions with wax on canvas such as Marché au Minho and Hommage au donateur , in an attempt to approach monumental art. In this sense, she designed the facade of a chapel for a Jesuit convent, but the project was not carried out.

In 1917, the Delaunays left Portugal and settled in Barcelona. It is during their stay in this city where they find out that the Russian Revolution has broken out, which was a disruption to the family's economy, since Sonia stopped receiving the income she received from Russia and which until then had been her mainstay. economic. They then decide to go to Madrid, where they received the support of Sergei Diaghilev. Thanks to him, they managed to collaborate with the Ballets Russes and Sonia designed the costumes for the revival of the ballet Cleopatra. Diaguilev also put Sonia in contact with Alfredo Escobar y Ramírez, Marquis of Valdeiglesias, director of the newspaper La Época and member of the Spanish aristocracy. This contact opened up a new world of possibilities for her, as the women of the Spanish aristocracy began to order dresses and decorative objects for her homes. She also carried out the decoration of the Pequeño Casino in Madrid. Likewise, thanks to Diaghilev, he obtained financial support and opened his first fashion boutique (simultaneous dresses, colored embroideries) and accessories (bags, fans, umbrellas...). It was an immediate success, and the main members of the Madrid artistic world became her regular clientele. This economic activity allowed him to cover the needs of the family and gave him fame and prestige. So much so, that he opened branches of his shop in Bilbao, San Sebastián and Barcelona. At the same time, the ballet Cleopatra premiered in London, whose costume design, by Sonia, caused such a furor that They commissioned him to design the costumes for the opera Aida, premiered at the Liceo de Barcelona in 1920.

Return to Paris: shows and decoration

In 1921, attracted by the new ideas and new artistic currents emerging in Paris, the Delaunays decided to return to the city. Robert leaves a few months before and Sonia stays in Madrid to liquidate her business. In Paris they soon joined the avant-garde movements again and reconstructed their cycle of friendships, including Albert Gleizes, André Lhote and André Breton, artists such as Tristan Tzara, Philippe Soupault or Joseph Delteil wrote poems inspired by Sonia's creations and they wore the clothes that she designed and made for them. Sonia decided to continue financing the family with the commercial use of her talent and, with the experience acquired in Madrid, she set up the Au sans pareil bookstore in Neully. She there she made the Clothes poems in collaboration with her friends her artists, and she returns to the binding of book covers by Tristan Tzara and Iliazd.

In 1923 he was commissioned to create the costumes for a work by Tzara, Le coeur à gaz. The show ended with the intervention of the police, but Sonia's costumes were a success, and critics echoed her compositions. Following this press success, she was contacted by a major textile company in Lyon to design motifs for their fabrics, Sonia Delaunay became the best known of a group of 19th century artists XX, from Raoul Dufy to Varvara Stepanova, and their designs entered fully into the world of commercial fashion.

The following year, she participated in an event in favor of Russian refugees, where she presented the "fashion of the future," mannequins dressed in her designs and accompanied by a poem by Joseph Delteil. This new success led her to associate with the couturier Jacques Heim, with whom she opened the Atelier simultané , at which time she created her first embroidered coats, which caused a strong impact on fashion at the time.. She exhibited her works at the Salon d'Automne and presented them in motion, thanks to a machine invented by Robert. In 1925, Sonia's design work was an extension of the concept of modernity brought to everyday life, so her name became synonymous with "modern style".

In 1926, he participated in the exhibition "Thirty Years of Independent Art" at the Grand Palais. Together with her husband, she ventured into the world of cinema, where they designed the sets and costumes for the films Le P'tit Parigot by LeSomptier, and Vertige by Marcel de L'Herbier.

The success of Sonia's designs is reflected in the invitation she receives from the Sorbonne in Paris to give a lecture in 1927: The influence of the southern peinture of art vestimentaire. But, even so, with the economic recession that France is suffering, she is forced to close her Atelier simultané . She is part of the first Union of Modern Artists exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Arts and a traveling exhibition that traveled to the United States. Starting in 1931, the couple joined forces to dedicate themselves fully to abstract art. During this period, which lasted until 1934, they dedicated themselves almost exclusively to painting, but Sonia continued to alternate her interest with the decorative arts, writing articles in fashion magazines. She also works on many billboards, where she began to incorporate mica-tube lamps. Along these lines, she creates the illuminated poster for Zig-Zag cigarette paper, with which she wins first prize in the contest organized by the Parisian Electrical Distribution Company.

Plate where Sonia and Robert Delaunay lived

In 1937, Robert Delaunay was commissioned to decorate two pavilions by the architects Mallet Stevens and Felx aublet, but he did not hesitate to incorporate Sonia into the work team, who had already demonstrated her aptitude for monumental decoration with the Hommage au donor. The team made up of a total of 50 workers and painters such as Bissière, Gleizes, Lhote, Survage... obtained the gold medal for their panels of the Railway Pavilion, and this facilitated the recognition of the critics and the public for their work. that the Delaunay-Terk marriage had performed. Continuing in this line of monumental art, in 1938 Sonia made a colored cement door for the entrance to the Mural Art exhibition. At the request of Othon Friesz, the Delaunays decorated the lobby of the sculptures of the Salon des Tulleries, with large Rhytm. A year later, Sonia and Robert together with other artists defending abstract art (Van Doesburg, Fredo Side...) organized the exhibition Réalités Nouvelles. Its importance lay in the fact that it brought together for the first time an exhibition of completely abstract artists. She also participated in a retrospective of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris. Robert died in 1941, and a few years later Sonia moved to Toulouse where she met up with old friends like Tzara or Uhde. There she decorated the Centre d'Accueil International of the Red Cross, which was his latest work of interior decoration.

From 1945 he settled again in Paris, devoting his efforts to getting Robert's talent recognized and, together with Louis Carré, organized the first Robert Delaunay retrospective in 1946. Together with Fredo Side, he organized the first Salon des Réalités Nouvelles where the only requirement was not to appear, and Sonia participated in it on several occasions.

Recognition of his work as an artist

From 1950, compilations of his works began to be published, lithographs, illustrations, gouaches... he continued working on his work, investigating color, and expanding his production towards the field of mosaics and stained glass. He also recovers his research on carpets and goes back to designing costumes and sets for the theater. Robert's death freed Sonia from the belief that there could only be one artistic career through marriage. And from here she begins her recognition of her individual work.

In 1958, the Städtischs Kunsthaus in Bielefeld (Germany) organized the first major retrospective of the work of Sonia Delaunay, with a total of 250 works. This exhibition was followed by a whole series of individual exhibitions around the world until the 1980s. In 1964 Sonia and her son Charles made a donation to the French state of a total of 101 works by Sonia and Robert Delaunay, but not until 1987. their work could not be seen together, when a prominent exhibition opened at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. In 1971 she decorated a car, a Matra 530, the proceeds from the sale went to medical research. Her constant concern for the application of color beyond painting is demonstrated in the application of her principles in a wide variety of artistic techniques. In 1975 she was named an Officer of the Legion of Honor by the French state. In 1978, she published the book Nuevos Irons jusqu'au soleil, where Sonia reflects on her work and that of Robert, how the couple shared the same aesthetic vision, expressed in similar forms, but which were materialized in different techniques.

In 1979, he suffered an accident that greatly reduced his mobility; however, he continued to paint. His last work was gouaches for the great retrospective organized by the Albright-Knox Museum in Buffalo. He died in his workshop on December 5, 1979.

The Museo Nacional Thyssen Bornemisza celebrated in 2017 Sonia Delaunay. Art, design and fashion, the first monographic exhibition of the artist in Spain .