Sonia Delaunay Biography: Textiles, Design, and Prints



Sonia Delaunay Original Print -
Composition with Semi-circles



Artist Sonia Delaunay-Terk was born in present day Ukraine on November 14th, 1885 under the surname Stern. At a young age Sonia Delaunay moved to St. Petersburg, where she was cared for by her mother's brother, Henri Terk, a successful and affluent Jewish lawyer. Henri Terk and his wife Anna adopted Sonia Delaunay in 1890 when she assumed the name Sonia Terk. Sonia Delaunay-Terk received a privileged upbringing with the Terks, traveling widely throughout Europe where Sonia Delaunay was introduced to art museums and art galleries.

Sonia Delaunay Etching -
Composition with Circles

When Sonia Delaunay was 18, she was sent to study art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, Germany. Sonia Delaunay studied in at the Art Academy until 1905 when she decided to join the Modern Art movement at Montparnasse in Paris. Sonia Delaunay was deeply influenced by the post-impressionist art of Van-Gogh, Gauguin, and Henri Rousseau as well as the artists of the Fauves group including Henri Matisse.

During Sonia Delaunay’s first year in Paris Sonia Delaunay met, and married, German homosexual art gallery owner Wilhelm Uhde. It is assumed that Sonia Delaunay’s marriage to Uhde was a marriage of convenience to escape the demands of her parents, who disliked her artistic career. Through Uhde's gallery Sonia Delaunay gained entrance into the Parisian art world and benefitted from his connections, and Uhde masked his homosexuality through his public marriage to Sonia. Through her connections Sonia Delaunay met prominent artists of the modern art movement including: Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Georges Rouault, and Maurice de Vlaminck.

Sonia Delaunay met painter Robert Delaunay in early 1909. Sonia and Robert became lovers in April of the same year and it was decided that Sonia Delaunay and Uhde should divorce. The divorce was finalized in August 1910. In November of 1910 Sonia and Robert Delaunay were married. Sonia Delaunay was pregnant with their son Charles who was born on January 18, 1911. Sonia Delaunay made a patchwork quilt for Charles' crib, which is now in the collection of the Musee National d'Art Moderne in Paris. Sonia Delaunay’s quilt was created spontaneously and exemplifies Sonia Delaunay’s use of geometry and color in her textiles, paintings, and original prints.

Sonia Delaunay Aquatint -
Composition with Triangles

Contemporary art critics recognize this as the point where Sonia Delaunay moved away from perspective and naturalism in her art. Robert & Sonia Delaunay became associated with the development of Orphism, a highly abstract art movement which paralleled the geometry of Cubism but with a much brighter color palette. It is said that artist Paul Klee was so taken with Sonia Delaunay’s’ patterning of squares from a 1912 illustrated book, that they became an enduring feature in Klee’s own art.
During the 1910-1920s, Sonia Delaunay focused on bringing this new artistic lyricism into the world of design, transforming Art Deco fabrics into vibrant high fashion clothing, wall coverings, furniture textiles as well as, theatrical costumes. In 1917 Sonia Delaunay met Sergei Diaghilev, and Sonia Delaunay designed costumes for his productions of Cleopatra and Aida.
The Russian Revolution brought an end to the financial support Robert & Sonia Delaunay received from Sonia’s family in Russia, and a different source of income was needed. Sonia Delaunay made clothes for private clients and friends, and in 1923 created fifty fabric designs using geometrical shapes and bold colors, commissioned by a manufacturer from Lyon. Sonia Delaunay’s customers included Nancy Cunard, Gloria Swanson, Lucienne Bogaert and Gabrielle Dorziat.

In the 1930s, Sonia Delaunay returned her focus on painting, joining the Abstraction-Creation group in seeking to create an art based upon non-representational elements, often geometrical, and continuing to focus on color as central to painting. The group was trans-national, and including among its members: Jean Arp, Barbara Hepworth, Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian. In 1937 Sonia & Robert Delaunay collaborated on a mural for the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne.

Sonia Delaunay Print -
Geometric Composition

In 1941 Robert Delaunay died of cancer. After Robert death, Sonia Delaunay continued to work and exhibit regularly as a painter & designer, turning often to printmaking including: etchings, lithographs, and pochoirs prints. In 1963 Sonia Delaunay donated 58 of her own works and 40 of Robert Delaunay’s to the Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris. Sonia Delaunay became the first woman ever to be exhibited at the Louvre during her lifetime when the museum mounted an exhibition of the works in 1964.

In 1966 Sonia Delaunay printed Rythmes-Couleurs with 11 of her gouaches produced as pochoir prints, with texts by Jacques Damase. In 1969 Sonia Delaunay printed Robes poemes, also with texts by Jacques Damase containing 27 Sonia Delaunay prints.

Sonia Delaunay-Terk died in 1979 at the age of 94 with no regrets in her life.

Sonia Delaunay’s work in modern design included the use of geometric abstraction in the integration of furniture, fabrics, wall coverings, clothing, prints, lithographs, and etchings.

Sonia Delaunay was the subject of a recent Exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum.


Select Museum Collections:
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, DC
Tate Gallery, London
Reina Sofia National Museum, Madrid
Louvre, Paris

Lithographic Vintage Posters

Henri Matisse "Madame de Pompadour" 1951

Vintage poster collecting became fashionable at the turn of the 19th Century. Vintage posters were a vibrant and expressive form of advertising meant to attract the throngs of everyday consumers in cities both large and small. These vintage posters had to be visually striking and immediately convey their message in order to entice the viewer. Vintage posters were typically placed at street (eye) level, and often these vintage posters were positioned in prominent areas such as gallery windows, railway stations, street kiosks, or on the sides of buildings where the vintage posters could be easily seen.

Pablo Picasso "Galerie Beyeler" 1967

As vintage poster collecting grew more popular, vintage posters were burglarized from billboards at an alarming rate, and it became increasingly difficult for advertisers to keep their vintage posters on the streets. As a solution to the problem, vintage poster lithography workshops increased production and began selling the vintage posters to the public.

Marc Chagall "Le Baie des Anges" 1962

These collectable vintage posters were created in lithography print workshops (also known as ateliers) that specialized in the print medium of Lithography. The Atelier Mourlot, founded in 1852, was a lithography print studio located in Paris that produced a number of vintage posters. Originally a printer of fine wallpaper, the Atelier Mourlot became involved in the printing of illustrated books as well as high quality vintage posters for the French National Museums and major foreign institutions. By 1937 the Mourlot lithography studio had established a reputation as the largest print workshop of vintage posters by master artists.

Joan Miro "Galerie Maeght" 1948

The Atelier Mourlot lithography studio was generationally operated by the sons of founder Francois Mourlot. The Atelier Mourlot took a modern artistic turn when Fernand Mourlot invited the master artists of the time into the Mourlot lithography studios to learn the technique of lithography. The Atelier Mourlot lithography studio played host to many major 20th century master artists including: Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Miro, Chagall, Leger, Dubuffet, Moore, Le Corbusier, Calder, Kelly, Rauschenberg, Matta, Bacon, Ernst, Lichtenstein, and many more.

 

Marc Chagall "The Magic Flute" 1967

Mourlot encouraged these master artists to work directly on the lithography stones or plates to create original vintage posters which would then be printed in small editions. The results of this artistic print collaboration between master artists and Mourlot were technically inventive, visually captivating and opened a unique realm of creative expression known as Fine Art lithography. Mourlot was proud of these vintage posters which bore the Mourlot family name and they became known worldwide for their originality, beauty and craftsmanship.

Original vintage posters by master artists of the 20th Century, have come to be recognized as a highly collectible form of art, whether for pleasure or for investment purposes. World-renowned museums exhibit vintage posters and many have permanent collections of vintage posters. Magnificent examples of such vintage poster collections can be found at the Louvre, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern, and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Le Corbusier "Tapisseries Recents" 1960

Henri Matisse Biography

Odalisque au Coffret Rouge,1952
Aquatint

“What I dream of is an art of balance, purity and serenity devoid of troubling or disturbing subject matter…like a comforting influence, a mental balm—something like a good armchair in which one rests from physical fatigue.”
                                                   – Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse was born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis in northern France. Matisse first began painting in 1889, when Matisse’s mother gave him art supplies during a period of convalescence following an attack of appendicitis. Henri Matisse discovered “a kind of paradise” in painting, and Matisse abandoned his legal career, to the deep disappointment of Matisse’s father.

In 1891 Henri Matisse moved to Paris to study art at the Acadamie Julian. It was here that Henri Matisse achieved proficiency in academic painting in the classic reserved style. In 1897, Henri Matisse was exposed to the artwork of Van Gogh and the palette of the Impressionists, which deeply changed Matisse’s understanding of color. Henri Matisse was greatly influenced by Neo-Impressionist artists: Eduard Manet, Auguste Rodin, Cezanne, Paul Signac and Gauguin.

Woman with a Hat, 1905
Oil on canvas

Henri Matisse had his first solo show at art dealer Ambroise Vollard’s gallery in 1904. At the 1905 Salon d’Automne, Henri Matisse and artists Andre Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck and Albert Marquet, exhibited together. Henri Matisse and his colleagues’ intensely vibrant, spontaneously painted works were jeered by the public, who deemed them exceedingly primitive, brutal and violent. The group of artists was dubbed “Les Fauves” (the wild beasts) by art critic Louis Vauxcelles. Other Fauvist included: Georges Braque, Raoul Dufy, and Maurice de Vlaminck. Matisse’s painting from the exhibition “Woman with a Hat” was bought by Gertrude Stein, who would become an important collector and supporter of Matisse.

Le Buffet, 1929
Pochoir

Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo were avid patrons of Matisse’s work and through Stein’s salons Henri Matisse was introduced to other important collectors as well as artists. In 1907 Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse met at one of Stein’s salons. This was the beginning of a creative association and rivalry between Picasso and Matisse. “No one has ever looked at Matisse's painting more carefully than I; and no one has looked at mine more carefully than Matisse.” stated Pablo Picasso.

After World War I, Henri Matisse had gained a high reputation and Matisse was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1925. Henri Matisse was an internationally recognized artist by 1930. During the 1940s Henri Matisse also worked in the Mourlot Studio in Paris, creating black-and-white prints for several illustrated books and over one hundred original lithographs, woodcuts, linocuts, and etchings.

Decoupage, 1954
Lithograph

In 1941 Henri Matisse had two major operations for duodenal cancer which had a devastating effect on Matisse’s health and ability to paint. The surgeries left Matisse unable to stand upright in front of an easel, and Henri Matisse was confined to either a bed or a wheelchair. Undaunted by this immobility, Matisse would tape a piece of charcoal to a long stick and Matisse would draw on mounted paper or directly on the walls or ceilings. Henri Matisse discovered a new kind of artistic creativity with papiers découpés, abstract shapes cut from colored paper. “The paper cut out” Matisse said “allows me to draw in the color. It is a simplification for me. Instead of drawing the outline and putting the color inside it—the one modifying the other—I draw straight into the color”. These artworks rank as some of the most joyous artworks ever created by an artist at an advanced age and Henri Matisse continued creating paper cutout works until his death. In 1947 Henri Matisse published Jazz, a limited-edition illustrated book containing original prints (lithographs, etchings and woodcuts) of colorful, paper cut collages.

Odalisque Sur Fond Rouge, 1929
Pochoir

Henri Matisse died on November 3, 1954 in Nice as an innovative artist who explored color and form through his paintings, lithographs, etchings, linocuts, illustrated books, sculpture and stain glass windows. Pablo Picasso once said about Matisse: "All things considered, there is only Matisse".

What Artists are the best to Collect for Investment?

There are essentially two kinds of artists that you can collect:

Artists we KNOW, and Artists we FEEL.

Artists We Know

"Artists we know" are artists who have established themselves in the art market. If we were to liken these to stocks, these established artists would be considered “Blue Chips.” Obvious examples of these artists would be longtime recognized artists: Picasso, Chagall, Matisse, Warhol, Lichtenstein, etc. But also more and more living artists like David Hockney, Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter, Peter Doig, Lucian Freud, Robert Indiana, Christo, etc.

Woman admiring Pablo Picasso prints at the MET Museum, New York

ArtistsWe Feel

"Artists we feel" are just that, artists that perhaps have not yet established themselves in the art scene, but we feel they are something special, and have great potential. These artists are comparable to a stock market “Start-up.” Of course there is no guarantee that these artists will ever reach Museum Status, but that is not why we invest in these artists, we invest in them because their works speaks to us on a visceral level, and we feel them with our hearts and souls.

Unknown Artist Exhibition, Los Angeles

Artists we know vs. Artists we feel

There is nothing wrong with spending some money on the artists we feel and love, just to have the pleasure of seeing them on our walls. My recommendation is to keep these kinds of investments low enough to enjoy without losing a lot, as money is hard earned, and a substantial price should only be paid for REAL VALUE with a strong future potential. If your purpose of collecting is investing then GO WITH WHAT YOU KNOW!

 Andy Warhol, Moonwalk, 1987 Screenprint

What is an Original Graphic Print?

Fine Art collecting can be an enjoyable and lucrative enterprise, but it can be easy to get lost in the process (no pun intended). As a new collector it may seem intimidating and somewhat confusing.

You might ask: How can a print be an original and valuable?

Many people confuse the print medium as a medium of copies, and though there are prints that are indeed copies after paintings or after pieces, the various print mediums are simply another method of creation for an artist. An artist chooses to create in a specific medium: drawing, sculpture, photography, film, painting or printmaking. Even within these mediums there are a plethora of media in which the work is created; for example a painting could be an acrylic, oil, tempera or gouache…or even a variety of these.

Within the print medium there are likewise various processes to attain the desired image. A graphic print is a term used to describe a print made by lithography, silk-screening, etching, aquatint, drypoint engraving, woodcut or linocut. An artist uses these printmaking methods as a vehicle of expression, and draws or paints directly on the plate or screen. Printmaking is much more involved than it sounds because the artist also must take into consideration that whatever he/she draws in the plate will be backwards once it is printed on paper. In addition to drawing in reverse, the finished print often requires multiple plates or screens to add specific hues and saturation to the final look.

Graphic prints are considered to be “original multiples,” as the finished print is the only manifestation of such work. Usually an artist makes a limited run or edition of these prints, and often they are ‘signed and numbered’ which means they are numbered sequentially and hand-signed by the artist.

Limited Editions have a stated limit of prints in the edition, and in fact the screen or plate is usually destroyed or damaged in a fashion that would make a posthumous (after death) re-print impossible. There are some editions that have an unknown or unlimited quantity of prints, and you will always find these to be of lesser value (basic supply and demand rules apply). The lower the edition size, the more difficult it may be to find said work, and thus its valuation is most likely higher.

A good rule of thumb with acquiring an original print is to find something in good condition, signed, with a low edition size.

Printmaking Methods:

 

Aquatint: A process for producing tone etchings, so named because the finished print resembles watercolor drawings in quality. The ordinary bitten line of etching is combined with a delicate tone or tint produced by etching the copper plate with acid through a protective resist. This resist, or ground, is laid by flooding the copper plate with dissolved powdered resin, or by inserting the copper plate in a dust box. Using the dust box method, the coating of resin dust has to be fastened to the plate by heating it. From this stage on the process is similar to etching. Those parts of the design which are to be left white are protected with an acid resistant material such as varnish, or are "stopped out", and the rest of the plate is bitten. Varying tonal effects are achieved by repeated varnishing and immersion. After preparation of the plate, the edition is pulled as would be in other etching techniques.

Drypoint, Drypoint Engraving:  A process of engraving upon a copper plate with a burin, scoring deeply into the plate, creating a furrow bordered by rough, upturned edges (the burr), which hold the ink. In line engraving, the slight burr made by the burin is removed, but in drypoint engraving the burr is left. Therefore, prints taken from a drypoint engraving have a special velvety black line.
 

Etching:  A process by which graphics are taken from a metal plate, on which the drawing is bitten with acid into the surface of the plate. A clean polished copper plate (or occasionally zinc or steel), is covered with a thin coating of acid-resisting etching ground. The drawing to be reproduced is either traced onto the blackened surface of the grounded plate, or is drawn directly onto the surface, using the burin, which exposes the metal in the drawn areas. The edges and back of the plate are then coated with an acid-resistant varnish and it is then immersed in a bath of acid which attacks the metal where it is exposed. When the lightest parts are bitten to the artist's liking, the plate is taken out of the acid and the work stopped out with varnish. The process can then be repeated until the work is completed to the artist's satisfaction. The ground and varnish are then removed with a solvent and the plate is then inked. Ink is applied to the entire surface and then carefully rubbed off, leaving the ink in the bitten areas. Impressions are made on damp paper, which is forced into the ink filled lines as the paper and plate are put through a pressure press.
 

Linocut: The full term is linoleum cut. A surface printing process similar to woodcutting. The image is dug into the linoleum (linoleum is a hard, smooth washable floor covering made of a mixture of ground cork, wood, and linseed oil) with the areas not to be printed being cut away. The block is then inked and paper is pressed down on the linoleum. Colors can be added by using different blocks, or altering the one block and re-inking.

Lithography: A surface printing process based on the mutual incompatibility of grease and water. (derived from the Greek term lithos meaning stone and grapho, meaning to write.) A greasy crayon is used to draw the design on the surface of a porous stone, usually a fine-grained limestone block (referred to as a plate). More modern methods use disposable aluminum plates instead of the original limestone blocks. The stone is then thoroughly wetted and an oil based ink rolled across its surface. Where the greasy design has repelled the water, the ink will adhere. Paper is then pressed onto the stone. Each print in the edition typically requires re-wetting and re-inking the stone or plate for each color resulting in a layering effect to create depth and texture.

Silkscreen or Serigraph: A printing process which involves the use of various screens or stencils. The design is drawn on the screen (at one time silk was the general material of choice, before technology provided better materials at less cost) and is either cut out (stencil) or stopped out with varnish. Ink or paint is then wiped or squeegee across the screen, and penetrates to the paper placed immediately below the screen. Different colors usually require the use of different screens, with the many colors being built up on the paper with each successive squeegee of ink or paint.

Woodcut: One of the earliest forms of printmaking, in which the design is carved in wood, with the areas not to be printed being cut away. The block is then inked and paper is pressed down on the woodblock. Colors can be added by using different blocks, or altering the one block and re-inking.