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!

Reviews
Times
Guardian
Telegraph
Independent
Evening Standard

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year Exhibition 2019

Image
Delightful exhibition at Clarendon Fine Art showing pictures from the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year TV series. I had loved the series which had set nine artists, both professional and amateur, to paint one of three celebrities. It then had a semi-final and final with them all looking at one sitter and in the final they also took on a commission. I loved the way you watched a picture build and how some were then made or spoiled by one stroke of paint.   Finding these pictures I knew so well in the flesh was therefore fascinating. None of them disappointed. My favourite artist from the final, Tom Mead, works looked just as good in real life if not better as you could see the detail. The show included his impressive self-portrait which he submitted to enter the competition, a wonderful fragmented picture of his reflection in a mirror giving a sense of movement. I loved that it included a large version of him and a miniature. His commission for the final of Jazzie B was
Read more

Thomas Becket: Murder and Making of a Saint

Image
Stunning exhibition at the British Museum on the life and afterlife of Thomas Becket. I studied Becket both at A Level and at university so I was really looking forward to this show and it did not disappoint. From walking in to see an old friend, the early Limoges casket showing the murder from the Victoria and Albert Museum, I was gripped. The show told the story well using fantastic objects and led you through his life, the murder, the political aftermath, his sainthood and miracles, and how Canterbury became a major pilgrimage site. It is hard to pick out the best objects as so many were wonderful. I loved that they had early copies of some of the five eyewitness accounts of the murder which made you fell you were almost touching the event. I liked the manuscript on his time in exile which was almost like a comic strip. How wonderful to get a 13th century font from Sweden which shows how far and how quickly the news that Henry II had integrated the murder spread. I think my
Read more

Courtauld summer school day 1

Image
Today has been my first day of this year’s week at the Courtauld Institute’s summer schools. This year I am doing “Painting in Renaissance Venice” which is being led by Michael Douglas-Scott. It was nice to see some familiar faces and there are at least five of us who did Michael’s course last year. Today has been two lectures. Firstly setting out the background of Venice in this period looking at how the city had set up a myth of itself, the role of the Doge. the nature of the Republic and the role of citizens. The second lecture looked at why the nature of Renaissance was different in Venice. There was still a sense of the coming of antiquity and humanism but in Venice it fused with the Gothic and Byzantine rather than replacing it. The day ended with a choice of gallery talks. I went to one on the second floor of the Courtauld on the coming of Modernism. In essence it looked at the Impressionists and discussed what they were reacting against and what themes they portrayed. All in a
Read more