SONIA DELAUNAY (1885-1979)

The name of Sonia Delaunay is essentially known and associated with painted and graphical works of art, in which the painter developed sinuous lines, circles and arabesques described with a shimmering chromaticism, which principal purpose was to transcribed movement thanks to colors – characteristic of the orphism, from which she was at the origin of, with her compagnon, Robert, from 1911.

Nevertheless, Sonia showed her talent in numerous domains, and among them she manifested strong attraction and attachment to the textile creation. If the painter founded her fashion house in 1918-1920, which realizations where characterized by the same colorful geometry than the one of her canvases, it did not take long before she began to design several rugs and tapestries – revealing a very similar aesthetic vein – for editors in the 1920’s and the 1930’s.

The plurality of Sonia’s creations, as well as the diversity of their very own nature – easel painting, monumental decoration, bookbinding, domestic textiles, fashion… –, have to be considered as a manifesto of the artistic precepts that animated her : to see and to inject art in every single thing, to bring beauty into the everyday life.