"Pssh -- who can do homework when there's a bead show in town?" My girlfriends and I dedicated the morning to rummaging through the aisles of Manhattan's annual bead show at the Metropolitan Pavilion. Thousands of jewels, bangles, beads and embroidered goods flooded the space. We couldn't think of any other way to top off the afternoon than taking a little visit to the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum for a viewing of Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay. The work of the French-Ukrainian Sonia Delaunay can only be categorized by this: a swift movement of colors frolicking amongst geometric shapes. Oranges, reds, blues, yellows and greens categorize her abstraction. See below.
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| Pattern designs, 1928–30 |
To have witnessed the museum's second floor entirely dedicated to textile swatches -- is beyond me. Certainly there were sketches, clothing, curtains and paintings among the swatches but the real thief, that which stole the show, were the swatches themselves. I encourage each and every one of you to view her work. NOW. Her sense of pattern, negative space and color compatibility is what made Sonia wise before her years. Or maybe just her later years (Gossip: She married a gay German man by the name of Wilhelm Uhde for the sake of connections -- aka he owned an art gallery -- aka he wanted to keep his homosexuality on the hush hush. Through this marriage she gained popularity in the art world). Note how I mention HER years and HER work -- because yes, that's right -- for decades Sonia was better known for being the wife of painter Robert Delaunay than an artist herself. (Gossip: Comtesse de Rose often visited the Uhde's gallery and sometimes brought her son -- Robert Delaunay. Sonia met Robert Delaunay in 1909 which led to love which led to a divorce between her and Uhde -- how scandelous!). Love it!
I'm wishing summer will come already! Sonia won't your paintings come to life?
For more information on this blog post check out:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/arts/design/sonia-delaunay-show-at-cooper-hewitt-review.html
Till next time,
Mari
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