Sonia Delaunay: A Woman of Design

Flamenco dancer, Sonia Delaunay - 1916 - oils on canvasPortrait of Philomene, Sonia Delaunay - 1907 - oils on canvas - 40.64 cm (16 in.), Width: 42.55 cm (16.75 in.) (click photo for larger image)Ukrainian-born French Abstract Painter and Designer Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) was an active participant in the Orphism movement, along with her husband, Robert Delaunay. Sonia’s work embodies strong colors and geometic shapes--and an amazing sense of design. In addition to painting, she worked in textile and stage set design. She was the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in 1964, and in 1975 she was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor. Orphism was a style of painting related to Cubism, but which involved overlapping planes of bright, contracting colors--and was more abstract. The movement was given its name by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, and refers to Orpheus, the singer and poet of Greek mythology.