Sonia Delaunay

Wonderfully colourful exhibition at Tate Modern on the life and work of Sonia Delaunay.

I must admit I’d not come across Delaunay before except for a vague knowledge of some of the larger colourful abstracts but came away with a real sense of the person and a sense of colour, vibrance and friendship.

Being a big Bloomsbury fan I was interested in the fact Delaunay not only painted but also worked in interior decoration and built up a group of friends and artists around her.  I wonder if she’d heard of the Omega Workshop as her first shop opened in Spain at a slightly later date.

However most interesting was her fashion work, using the same colours and techniques as her art and I realised a lot of my view of 1920s fashion is her work. The wonderfully straight loose dresses made in bright geometrically patterned materials.

The show mixed paintings with outfits and interior design work together well so you could see the influences each had one the other. I loved an early dress she had made for herself to go to dance clubs using the colour theory developed by her and her husband called simultanism and the fact this was hung by a wonderful picture by her of a dance hall as well as by pictures using the technique on the effect of newly introduced electric lights.

I particularly like the room which had examples of her materials in all their colourways. It was fascinating to see the difference a change in colour can make to a pattern. Oh and also the room with three of the pictures she and her husband did for the 1937 Paris Exhibition all the theme of aviation.

As I’m sure you can tell this show came as a lovely surprise and I fell in love with it!

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