The EY Exhibition: Sonia Delaunay

摘要

It is unusual, to say the least, for a retrospective at Tate Modern to have as its centrepiece a large room devoted to Fashion and Textiles. It seemed entirely appropriate here, and the textile theme wound its way through this exhibition starting with the densely patterned backgrounds of early portraits from 1907/8 and ending with the bold geometric design of a hand-knotted carpet Discs from 1968, taking in patchwork, stage costumes, embroidery and printed fabrics along the way. There were lots of paintings too, of course. In the first part of the exhibition it was the colour of the paintings that was striking. In the panoramic Bal Bullier (1913), the dancers twist through the ballroom in a tango of vibrant colour. This is an example of a colour theory, simultanism, developed by Sonia and artist husband Robert, also seen in her Electric Prisms series.