Contrastes simultans

This work belongs to the series Contrastes Simultans that Sonia Delaunay began in 1912. The title of the series derives from M. E. Chevreul's treatise on colour, De la Loi du contraste simultan des couleurs and these works are in some ways closely related to the exploratory forms of her husband Robert's series Formes Circulaires. For Sonia Delaunay, the merit of the Contrastes Simultans series lay in "the pure colours becoming planes and opposing each other by simultaneous contrasts [creating] for the first time new constructed forms not through chiaroscuro but through the depth of colour itself." (S. Delaunay, Programme du thtre des Champs-Elyses, 1926-27.) This work, executed in 1913 is one of the last of the series and dates from the period when the artist was beginning to combine her simultaneous theories of colour with the linguistic influence of her new friend and associate, the poet Blaise Cendars.