Sonia Delaunay Sans titre [Untitled] 1960s © pracusa 20200742

Biography

Born 1885
Died 1979
Nationalities Russian
French
Birth place Gradizhsk
Death place Paris

Sonia Terk was born in Ukraine but left for St Petersburg at an early age before moving to Paris where she spent most of her working life. Along with her husband Robert Delaunay, whom she married in 1910, she was a leading practitioner of what became known as 'Simultanism', an offshoot of Cubism and Futurism, which sought to distil a multitude of different 'modern' experiences and present them simultaneously in a single picture. Simultanist paintings aim to create rhythm, motion and depth through overlapping patches of vibrant contrasting or complementary colours. Sonia Delaunay was the first living artist to have a retrospective in 1964 at the Louvre. The work she made throughout her career crossed the boundaries of fine art, decorative arts and commercial design.

Glossary terms

Glossary terms

School of Paris

A loosely affiliated group of artists working in Paris in the early years of the twentieth century up to the Second World War.