Hélice

In this work the artist recalls his early and deeply original concepts on the combination of light, colour and movement. More specifically he is referring to the image of the airplane propeller, which he had first used in his Hommage à Blériot, painted in 1913-1914 (Musée d'Art Moderne de la villed de Paris). Like the Italian Futurists, Delaunay was fascinated by technology in modern life and Blériot's achievement of crossing the English Channel in 1909 made a deep impression on him. In his homage to the French airman and the present work Delaunay creates the effect of the distortion of light and the colour generated by the very fast movement of the propeller, which has been reduced to a multi-coloured curving form.