Modern & Postwar Artists

Sonia Delaunay

1885 - 1979

Sonia Delaunay’s innovative explorations of color and form began with a quilt she made for her son in 1911 that would spur a breakthrough in the history of abstraction.

She had moved from Moscow to Paris at age 20, where she first encountered Post-Impressionism and Fauvism, inspiring her to push further toward non-objective art. Along with her husband, Robert Delaunay, she developed a bright blend of Cubism and Futurism that would be dubbed Orphism by critic Guillaume Apollinaire in 1910—though Delaunay preferred the term “Simultaneous Contrasts”.