Sonia Delaunay: living art

Abstract

"A richly crafted tribute to the avant-garde artist and designer Sonia Delaunay, whose boundary-breaking approach is echoed in the volume's interdisciplinary and its inspired design. This catalogue sets a new standard for the study of Sonia Delaunay, pioneering avant-garde artist, designer, and entrepreneur (1885-1979). Eschewing traditional chronological structures to better showcase groundbreaking research unifying the artist's timeless oeuvre across mediums, this publication demonstrates Delaunay's innate versatility and willingness to create without material limitation using her unique language of light and color. Textiles, fashion, interiors, book art, and more are highlighted across 26 chapters by leading international scholars to give new insight into Delaunay's strategies of self-promotion, entrepreneurial endeavors, legacy-building efforts, and vast network of collaborators. These in-depth analyses, including previously under-investigated material such as film, mosaics, tapestries, and interior design, offer a comprehensive perspective on Delaunay's lifelong effort to unite art with life by harnessing the energy of technological advancement and the beauty of artisanal craftsmanship. Finally, an appendix provides a unique personal note--an epilogue by Patrick Raynaud, the last living member of Delaunay's atelier--is a touching firsthand account of the artist's working practices toward the end of her life. The design, by award-winning book creator Irma Boom, embraces Sonia Delaunay's own approach to layout and typography, rendering a book that unites past and present"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Foreword / Susan Weber -- Introduction / Waleria Dorogova and Laura Microulis -- Note to the reader -- Chronology -- A new vision. 1. Sonia Delaunay's avant-gardism / Rachel Silveri ; 2. A life of painting color / Cécile Godefroy -- Creation in exile. 3. Jewish identity / Gail Levin ; 4. Another exile : the art of survival and the survival of art in occupied France / Margarete Zimmermann ; 5. Being part of the "other Russia" / Waleria Dorogova ; 6. Walk like an Egyptian / Waleria Dorogova -- La vie moderne. 7. Des soirées bien parisiennes : film projects / Hilde D'Haeyere and Steven Jacobs ; 8. Eclipsing the sun : la prose du Transsibérien and Sonia Delaunay's electric alterity / Tamar Kharatishvili ; 9. Charles Delaunay and the aesthetics of jazz / Celeste Day Moore ; 10. Cars : colors on the move / Dirk Van Oost ; 11. When color meets light : luminous posters / Ruth Hommelen -- The philosophy of space. 12. "The poetry of a room" : interior design and decoration / Marjan Sterckx and Werner Adriaenssens ; 13. Redefining the interior : Sonia Delaunay's concept of dwelling / Kasia Stempniak ; 14. Sensibility and ratio : interiors for Georges Gersen / Waleria Dorogova -- The enterprise of Simultané. 15. "C'est un travail noble" : fashion design / Maude Bass-Krueger ; 16. Painting with stitches : the art of "point du jour" embroidery / Noah Dubay ; 17. Sonia Delaunay and Jacques Heim : fashion through the prism of the avant-garde / Émilie Hammen ; 18. Fabrics as commerce and artistic medium / Waleria Dorogova ; 19. Robert Perrier's "années Delaunay" / Waleria Dorogova ; 20. Textile research or laboratory of abstraction? / Laurent Cotta -- Infinite exploration. 21. The books : poetry of words, poetry of colors / Christoph Benjamin Schulz ; 22. Tapestries : "a play of colored wools" / Laura Microulis ; 23. Spirituality and stained glass / Geoffrey Ripert ; 24. Mosaics : inherently simultaneous / Kaat Obbels ; 25. The ABC's of color : designing for children / Waleria Dorogova ; 26. Expanding the reach of Simultanism / Laura Microulis -- Epilogue. 27. Sonia et moi / Patrick Raynaud ; 28. Sonia Delaunay speaks : interview transcript from the series Français de Notre Temps (1974).