On Thursday, April 26th, 2018, PIASA will present its second Masters’ sale of prints, illustrated books and multiples of great masters of the 20th century. The first edition shone a spotlight on the works of Andy Warhol, successfully presenting the complete collection of his vinyl records. This second sale provides us with the opportunity to present a rare private collection of Sonia Delaunay’s works, notably rare creations by the artist in decorative and applied arts.
Sonia Delaunay’s fashion is intimately linked to her painting, while claiming its role as a distinct artistic discipline; her vision is unified, regardless of the technique. If the first ‘robe simultanée’, made of assembled geometric cloth trimmings, is inspired by the traditional Russian fabrics, it is mainly the expression of ‘simultanéisme’, a movement created by Sonia and Robert Delaunay: this notion of simultaneous contrast relies on the opposition of complementary colors affecting their perception by the observer. According to poet Blaise Cendrars, “this contrast is not a black and white, on the contrary, a dissemblance. Today’s art is depth. […] ‘Simultané’ is a technique, simultaneous contrast is the newest improvement of this craft, of this technique.” While Robert applies this method to paintings and ballet decors, his spouse widens the field of her creation. She begins by imagining costumes for Diaghilev’s ballet in 1918, to animate tables with her fabrics, to animate life with her clothes, to animate the household with her decoration. The “simultané” patterns that appear on her canvases therefore find themselves on dresses, scarves, bags, dishware, automobiles, carpets and tapestries, naturally blurring the boundary between ‘fine arts’ and decorative arts. This ambition to go beyond the traditional limits of art is highlighted in PIASA’s collection, which brings together lithographs, prints, jewelry and scarves by Sonia Delaunay.
Her apparition in the world of fashion is due to a succession of encounters: Sergei Diaghilev, creator of the Ballets Russes, allowed her to design costumes for the representation of Cléopâtre; this first step towards the creation of garments will bring her to create the fashion and decoration boutique ‘Casa Sonia’, during her exile in Spain. Upon her return to Paris, she created the Maison Sonia within her Parisian apartment where she welcomes her prestigious clientele in a living room entirely decorated with her creations. At the same time, she joins the circles of Dadaist and surrealist poets, and will design costumes for the second representation of Tristan Tzara’s “Le Coeur à Gaz”. Twelve lithographs presented by PIASA replicate the sketches created for the event, in a rare compiling dedicated to Tzara’s play.
Sonia Delaunay also imagines poem-dresses for the works of Apollinaire and Blaise Cendrars, amongst which 27 are reproduced in a stunning volume presented for sale.
The decorative arts and the fashion of Sonia Delaunay are the result of her will to make art enter life, and to bring life to art: she hopes to “transform the triteness of daily life and the objects that come with it in an elevated artistic atmosphere”, pioneering the dynamic of the reunification of arts that will traverse the 20th and 21st centuries. Sonia Delaunay’s fashion is simultaneous: inseparable from the whole of her creation, it is a facet of her use of color as the evocative force of light and movement.
