(1885–1941). One of the earliest painters of abstract art, Robert Delaunay transformed the style called cubism by using more vibrant colors. The poet Guillaume Apollinaire named Delaunay’s version of cubism “orphism.” The essential element of orphism, named after the Greek poet and musician Orpheus, was that “color is both form and subject.”
Delaunay was born in Paris on April 12, 1885. He became an apprentice to a stage designer in 1902. Although influenced by the post-impressionists, he was associated with the cubists by 1909. His first major paintings were the series of Cathedrals and Cities in the cubist style. His St-Severin and the three large paintings of Eiffel Tower are also cubist but show an expanded use of color. Delaunay’s dynamic perceptions of the world of light produced his first purely abstract paintings in 1912, in two series that were known as Windows and Disks. The vibrancy created by his use of pictorial rhythms and color harmonies had an immediate effect on the senses. He was admired by the Blue Rider group in Munich, Germany, and exhibited in their shows of 1911 and 1912 and at Berlin’s Der Sturm Gallery in 1913.
Delaunay married the Ukrainian painter Sonia Terk in 1910, and from 1915 to 1920 they lived in Spain and Portugal. Among other things they designed sets for Sergei Diaghilev’s ballet Cléopâtre in 1918. When they returned to Paris in 1921, their home became a meeting place for the Dadaists, but they were little influenced by the group. They collaborated on a major decorative project for the 1937 Exposition Internationale in Paris.
Delaunay’s love of rhythmic motion inspired still another subject for his painting—sporting events. Cardiff Team dates from 1913, Hommage to Blériot (1914), and the series Sprinters from 1924 to 1926. These led to pure rhythmic patterns, or total abstraction, in the nonobjective series Rhythms and Eternal Rhythms. Delaunay died in Montpellier, France, on Oct. 25, 1941.