Sonia Delaunay, a Ukrainian-born fashion and textile designer, created bold and delightful patterns on scarves and dresses that influenced her paintings. The Bard Graduate Center’s exhibition “Sonia Delaunay: Living Art” showcases 184 garments, artifacts, and paintings from her 60-year career, emphasizing her unique approach to art. Initially trained as a Fauvist painter, Sonia incorporated fabric into her practice after marrying French painter Robert Delaunay in 1910. The exhibition explores the creative partnership between the couple, highlighting Sonia’s contributions to their shared vocabulary of bisected circles and radial segments.
While Sonia and Robert’s artworks often appear together in museums, the Bard Graduate Center exhibition aims to emphasize Sonia’s individual artistic style. Through a combination of garments and paintings, the show reveals Sonia’s ability to bring her designs to life through various mediums. Sonia’s mastery of textiles is a focal point of the exhibition, showcasing her expertise in dyeing, embroidery, quilting, and sewing. The display of her creations, such as cloches, handbags, dresses, curtains, and upholstery, highlights the continuity in her design aesthetics across different forms.
The exhibition also delves into Sonia’s use of color and patterns, inspired by theorist Michel Eugène Chevreul’s treatise on color harmony. Sonia’s “simultaneous fabrics” and color cards demonstrate her understanding of color theory and her innovative approach to design. An instructional “color cards” to fabric manufacturers provide insight into her marketable instinct and knowledge of color relationships. Her works from the 1960s and 70s, including rugs, tapestries, mosaics, record sleeves, and automobile designs, showcase her influence during the Pop era as a pioneer in abstraction.
The exhibition emphasizes Sonia’s role in the abstraction movement and her contributions to the modern art world. Through her unique approach to textiles and design, Sonia carved out a distinctive painterly voice that resonates in her works. The show features her artworks created in the aftermath of Robert’s death, showcasing her ability to infuse emotion and urgency into her compositions. Her legacy as a visionary artist in Europe is celebrated, and the exhibition sheds light on her overlooked yet significant influence on modern art.
Sonia Delaunay’s enduring impact on the art world is evident in the narrative presented by the Bard Graduate Center exhibition. Her ability to merge form and function in her designs continues to excite and inspire contemporary audiences. The exhibition acts as a prelude to the Guggenheim’s upcoming survey of Sonia’s Parisian scene, highlighting her importance as a groundbreaking artist. A century later, Sonia’s innovative use of color, patterns, and textiles remains a source of inspiration, showcasing her ability to create a new language in art that liberates, radiates, and communicates the mystery of interior life.
