Dresses and fabrics Sonia Delaunay

Sonia Delaunay is a representative of 20th century contemporary art. During her lifetime, she was the first among women artists to receive a retrospective exhibition in the Louvre.

Sonia Delaunay - Sonia Delaunay
Sonya was born on November 14, 1885 in the small town of Gradizhsk in Ukraine. At birth, she received the name - Sara, Sara Elievna Stern. The large Jewish Stern family was not rich. And at the age of five, the girl was adopted by her maternal uncle - Heinrich Turk. So Sarah became Sonya Turk.

Sonya's childhood was held in St. Petersburg. Uncle created all the conditions for her education, she took drawing lessons, went to rest in Finland, Italy, Switzerland. It was then that she showed great interest in the fine arts. And in 1903, my uncle sent eighteen-year-old Sonya to Germany, to a private school.

She studied at the Ludwig Schmidt-Reite school for only two years, then moved to Paris and entered the Academy de la Palette, where she studied engraving. Gradually she entered the circle of artistic bohemia. Not wanting to return to St. Petersburg, Sonya married her friend, collector Wilhelm Uhde, who was involved in the sale of works of art.

The marriage of convenience lasted two years. Then Sonya met the artist Robert Delaunay, and in 1910 she married him. Soon there was a son Charles. Sonya and Robert were connected not only romantically, but also intellectually. Sonya said about her husband: "He gave me a shape, and I gave him a color."

Her first experiments with textiles appeared at the moment when she decided to sew a blanket for her little Charles. Sonya connected pieces of different colors and came to the conclusion that it was very original. The abstract patterns on the blanket were her first design experiences, she called them simultaneous contrasts.

In 1913, her first simultaneous dress appeared. Sonya sewed it from colorful patches and appeared in it at a party. Since then, "simultaneous contrasts" have become an integral part of her work and inspired her to engage in design. She developed a theory of color rendering through "simultaneity" - a sense of movement when contrasting colors are placed next to one another.

Robert Delaunay shared with her the same views on art. Color, light, rhythm and simultaneity became the main guiding principles of their art. "Electric Prisms", "Light Lessons" are created in the bright range of refracted sunlight.

The world of artists, writers and poets, in which Sonya lived, served as a source of inspiration for her. At this time, she works on illustrations, posters, and objects of applied art. Sonya created a poem dress where she used poetry. The words were combined with the images created by Sonya. She wore this dress to all parties, exhibitions, poetry readings.

The First World War began. Sonya and her husband moved to Madrid, life continued under the warm Spanish sun. However, after the revolution in Russia, she lost the financial support of her uncle from St. Petersburg. But fortunately at this time the Diaghilev ballet was on tour in Spain. Sergei Pavlovich offered Sonya a job in the troupe, and with his help she found success. She created sketches of new costumes, which were later used by ballet dancers for a long time.

And in 1968 they were seen at the Sotheby's auction. The last event again stirred up interest in both Diaghilev and Sonia Delaunay. Upon their return to Paris, Sonya and her husband Robert communicate with Chagall, Tristan Tzara, Mayakovsky and many other poets and artists.

At this time, Sonia opens the Delaunay Fashion House, participates in the Paris Exhibition of Contemporary Decorative Arts and the Art Industry, where she presents her works. This exhibition attracted great attention, and people started talking about Delaunay's works.Sonia Delaunay's models were easily recognized on the streets of cities, and in 1925-1929 they became one of the symbols of avant-garde fashion.

The textile factories "Rodier" and "Lyon" produced fabrics with geometric patterns according to Delaunay's sketches. The works of the married couple were gaining more and more popularity, they were ordered to decorate shop windows and apartments, theatrical scenery. Sonya is increasingly invited to theaters and film studios to create costumes.

Sonya created clothes and accessories - from coats to swimwear, especially the simultaneous scarves brought her fame. But all the products created by Sonia Delaunay are convincing that her talent was in the creation of color and light - the "movement of color", and not the styles of clothing. Her bold and vibrant geometric shapes and ornaments brought traditional silhouettes to life.

Sonya knew how to perfectly combine and combine colors. And when their Fashion House was closed in 1929 due to the economic crisis, it became clear from the documents that it was the fabrics that were of interest to the visitors, and not the outfits created by Delaunay. Sonia Delaunay's contribution to fabric design has been enormous. In her works, the influence of Russian folk art is felt, there are motives close to art deco.

In her drawings, Sonya rarely used clearly defined lines. Delaunay's fabrics display bright abstract canvases, one can see the desire for the effect of spontaneous movement of the picture. Actors, designers, architects and their wives were interested in bright fabrics.

After the atelier was closed, Sonia has been designing fabrics under the Tissus Delaunay brand. Particularly fruitful and long-lasting was her collaboration with the Metz + Co department store (until the end of the 1960s), which first sold her ready-made fabrics, and then began to independently produce fabrics according to Delaunay's sketches. During the 1930s alone, she created over 2000 different colors for the department store.

Sonia Delaunay summed up her work, her success as follows: “... developing in art, we carried it into everyday life ... it became more accessible and understandable thanks to my fabrics. For me, my fabrics were nothing more than an exercise in color. "

And the Parisian magazine L'Ar vivant wrote in 1925: “These printed and embroidered fabrics are subject to the same principle of balance of volume and color. A strong and deep sense of magnificent rhythm is characteristic of Madame Delaunay's compositions. Abstraction reigns in them, ... a mutating geometry, alive and raised to the heights by the ease of its inspiration, ... ".

Sonia Delaunay's ebullient activities continued until the very end of her life, until 1979. Four years before her death, Sonia Delaunay was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.

A large collection of her works is in the Parisian National Museum of Modern Art, Center Pompidou.