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Lot Essay
For Sonia Delaunay, colour was the central consideration within her practice, providing both structure and subject matter to her expressive compositions. Standing almost two metres in height, Rythme couleur (Coloured Rhythm) is a striking example of her visionary aesthetic executed in large-scale. Across the expansive canvas, Delaunay shaped a series of lyrical arcs and discs, her signature form, that together seem propelled by their own internal momentum. Guided by her intuition, Delaunay often painted directly onto the canvas, and this spontaneity is revealed in the chromatic interplay seen in the present work. As the artist explained, she was ‘searching for something within [herself] and little by little it became abstract painting’ (quoted in D. Seidner, ‘Sonia Delaunay’ in Bomb, Winter 1982, online).
Described by Richard Riss as one of the most beautiful examples of the series, Rythme couleur was created in 1946, shortly after Delaunay returned to Paris from the South of France, where she had spent much of the Second World War, following the death of her husband, the painter Robert Delaunay. In the capital, she moved back into the apartment at 16 rue de Saint-Simon where the two had previously lived. This was a transitional moment for Delaunay, during which she was determined to cement her husband’s legacy while simultaneously recommitting herself to her own artistic practice. She returned enthusiastically to painting and to the tenets that had, for so long, shaped her art, namely the idea of Simultaneism, the movement she helped to pioneer in the early twentieth century that privileged the simultaneous expression of contrasting colours.
The tension within paintings such as Rythme couleur comes from the relationship between the seemingly arbitrary placement of pigment and the precise definition of geometric forms. As such, these works reveal Delaunay’s ability to balance order and chaos, chance and intention, a perception built upon her appreciation and methodical approach to colour. When asked how she learned to paint, the artist answered that it had been through her studies of the colour theories of Michel Eugène Chevreul, as well as by observing her husband’s approach to painting, which she then translated into her own idiom through much personal deliberation and exploration. ‘When I tried to express myself, lines bothered me,’ she later reflected. ‘So, in looking at Van Gogh, in looking at Gauguin, I liberated myself from older things’ (interviewed in ‘Français de notre temps,’ trans. by G. Ripert, 1974; reproduced in A. Montfort and C. Godefroy, eds., Sonia Delaunay, exh. cat., Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, 2014, p. 508).
Equally as important to Delaunay was corporeal expression, informed by years of working with textiles and in fashion design. She was particularly riveted by dance, specifically tango, as well as Loïe Fuller’s ‘Serpentine’ performances that had taken Belle Epoque Paris by storm. A similar sense of movement can be felt in the curvilinear shapes that fill Rythme couleur; the sinuous semicircles undulating and flowing across the canvas. Indeed, the lattice of these interlocking half-circles, in particular, evokes Fuller’s billowing costume and expressively modern choreography. Rhythm was key to Delaunay’s paintings, both with regards to structure and the relationship between tonalities. As the artist herself noted, she sought to uncover the ‘harmonies and dissonances that give colours a life of their own, investing them with a pulse and vibrations which, when later put in order, became rhythms’ (quoted in G. Maldonado, ‘A Circular Story’ in ibid., p. 189).
Rythme couleur was previously owned by Arthur Cohen and Elaine Lustig Cohen, who acquired the painting directly from the artist. Arthur was a leading scholar of Delaunay’s oeuvre and the author of several well-regarded texts, including Sonia Delaunay, published in 1975. The Cohens, themselves deeply embedded in New York City’s post-war art world, purchased several works from the Delaunay studio. The current owners acquired the work directly from the Cohens’ daughter, Tamar, in 2014.
Described by Richard Riss as one of the most beautiful examples of the series, Rythme couleur was created in 1946, shortly after Delaunay returned to Paris from the South of France, where she had spent much of the Second World War, following the death of her husband, the painter Robert Delaunay. In the capital, she moved back into the apartment at 16 rue de Saint-Simon where the two had previously lived. This was a transitional moment for Delaunay, during which she was determined to cement her husband’s legacy while simultaneously recommitting herself to her own artistic practice. She returned enthusiastically to painting and to the tenets that had, for so long, shaped her art, namely the idea of Simultaneism, the movement she helped to pioneer in the early twentieth century that privileged the simultaneous expression of contrasting colours.
The tension within paintings such as Rythme couleur comes from the relationship between the seemingly arbitrary placement of pigment and the precise definition of geometric forms. As such, these works reveal Delaunay’s ability to balance order and chaos, chance and intention, a perception built upon her appreciation and methodical approach to colour. When asked how she learned to paint, the artist answered that it had been through her studies of the colour theories of Michel Eugène Chevreul, as well as by observing her husband’s approach to painting, which she then translated into her own idiom through much personal deliberation and exploration. ‘When I tried to express myself, lines bothered me,’ she later reflected. ‘So, in looking at Van Gogh, in looking at Gauguin, I liberated myself from older things’ (interviewed in ‘Français de notre temps,’ trans. by G. Ripert, 1974; reproduced in A. Montfort and C. Godefroy, eds., Sonia Delaunay, exh. cat., Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, 2014, p. 508).
Equally as important to Delaunay was corporeal expression, informed by years of working with textiles and in fashion design. She was particularly riveted by dance, specifically tango, as well as Loïe Fuller’s ‘Serpentine’ performances that had taken Belle Epoque Paris by storm. A similar sense of movement can be felt in the curvilinear shapes that fill Rythme couleur; the sinuous semicircles undulating and flowing across the canvas. Indeed, the lattice of these interlocking half-circles, in particular, evokes Fuller’s billowing costume and expressively modern choreography. Rhythm was key to Delaunay’s paintings, both with regards to structure and the relationship between tonalities. As the artist herself noted, she sought to uncover the ‘harmonies and dissonances that give colours a life of their own, investing them with a pulse and vibrations which, when later put in order, became rhythms’ (quoted in G. Maldonado, ‘A Circular Story’ in ibid., p. 189).
Rythme couleur was previously owned by Arthur Cohen and Elaine Lustig Cohen, who acquired the painting directly from the artist. Arthur was a leading scholar of Delaunay’s oeuvre and the author of several well-regarded texts, including Sonia Delaunay, published in 1975. The Cohens, themselves deeply embedded in New York City’s post-war art world, purchased several works from the Delaunay studio. The current owners acquired the work directly from the Cohens’ daughter, Tamar, in 2014.