Delaunay Robert is known worldwide as the founder of a new art style. Having no artistic education, he was able to become an innovator, entrusting everything to color. His faithful companion and co-author was his wife, who emigrated from Odessa during the revolution.
All his life he sought to achieve perfection only with the help of color, entrusting all functions to it. He managed to achieve this, but illness and war prevented him from developing his creativity.
Short biography
Delaunay Robert was born on 1885-12-04 in Paris. Due to the early divorce of his parents, his uncle was involved in raising the boy. The young man did not undergo special art training. However, under the influence of the work of Gauguin and Cezanne, at the age of twenty, he found himself in painting.
During the war of 1914-1918. moved to Spain and Portugal. He returned to his native city only in 1921. He was involved in monumental works for the World Exhibition of 1937, held in the capital of France.
At the beginning of the Second World War, the artist left for Auvergne, but a serious illness had already progressed. Robert died on October 25, 1941, at the age offifty six years old. The cause of death was cancer.
Family life
At twenty-three, Delone Robert returned from military service and met Sonia Turk (an emigrant from Odessa). They got married two years later - in 1910. A year later, their son Charles was born.
The wife became a like-minded artist, in addition, a co-author of works in design and applied art. For example, they worked together on a masterpiece for the aforementioned 1937 exhibition.
The couple laid the foundations of their own artistic concept. It was radically different from the one that has developed since the Renaissance.
Main goal
Delaunay Robert believed that his main task in painting is to depict the chaos of color spots. He said more than once that he loves color first of all, unlike the general mass of people who prefer light. Because of the love of light, our ancestors invented fire, and the master resisted it and depicted it in each of his compositions.
Creative path
At the beginning of his journey in painting, Robert Delaunay was inspired by impressionism. He was fond of the works of Gauguin (Breton period). Since 1906 he was attracted by post-impressionism. But Cezanne's creations had a more significant impact.
The artist in his own way solved the problem of discrepancy between volume and color. Therefore, his cubism was original. This was expressed in the paintings of 1906, in which objects were framed by a luminous halo.
According to the artist, a line drawing leads toerror. He found it in many famous cubists. Having understood how to break the lines, he tried to get away from them altogether. To do this, he returned to the "separate" stroke of post-impressionism. This made it possible to delineate shapes without using outlines.
By 1912, the master switched to color technique and settled on it. She helped the artist achieve what he wanted when forms on canvases are created by correlating differently colored planes. The space is obtained with the help of tonal inconsistencies.
Main periods of creativity
Constructive
The artist Delaunay Robert believed that color was valuable in itself, so with its help he replaced most of the elements, such as drawing with perspective and volume with chiaroscuro. The period began in 1912. He strove for form, composition, plot to be conveyed exclusively in color.
The master discovered the quality of color, which is known as dynamic power. He noticed that colors located nearby can lead to a kind of vibration. This allowed the creator to simulate the movement of the composition.
An example of this period is the paintings from the "Round Shapes" ensemble.
Iberian
Delaunay Robert, whose work is in question, during the hostilities of 1914-1917. lived in Portugal, Spain. Here he began to apply a new technique, depicting the human body and various objects.
The artist was able to deepen the formed concept of "dissonance" in the visual arts. In his interpretation, it was a juxtaposition of color with rapid vibration. In the twentiesof the last century, he perfected his own artistic language.
An example is the painting "Portuguese Still Life".
Second abstract
The artist returned to the problems that he tried to curb in the ensemble "Round Forms" in 1930. Delaunay created other works on the same topic. They turned out to be more dynamic and generally more perfect from a technical point of view.
The true solution he was able to find in the Joy of Life series. In these paintings, the artist resorted to a technique with which he was able to distinguish between fragments and focus only on the composition.
Examples of the works of this period include "Rhythms", "Endless Rhythms".
Monumental period
Robert Delaunay (biography is inextricably linked with Sonia Turk) saw in his painting a monumental character. He explained to his comrades and followers that by making the transition in work on one creation to the second, and then to the next, one can get an ensemble. Such painting, in his opinion, does not destroy architecture, but makes colors play on the surface.
In his work with Relief Rhythms, the French artist used and even invented materials that would be resistant to the environment.
In 1937, the organizers of the Paris exhibition offered to design two buildings. Thus, Delaunay had the opportunity to combine architecture with his works. He created huge relief panels.
In likemonumental style were the latest creations, such as "Circular Rhythm", "Three Rhythms". They became a kind of spiritual testament of the author. Delaunay's subsequent creative search was interrupted by illness and subsequent death.
Series of paintings
The master refused in his works from the usual means, from the standard way of thinking. He decided to entrust everything to the color. Current scientific theories have confirmed the creative search of the master. With exceptional color, he managed to show a new perception of space, the dynamism of the material.
Being a Parisian, the artist could not ignore the main architectural structure of our time. Therefore, Robert Delaunay depicted on the canvases the symbol of his native city. The Eiffel Tower is a series of paintings he has been painting since 1909. The light in them flows from everywhere, as a result of which the image breaks up into parts. Each fragment is subject to its own perspective.
In 1912, he creates the ensemble "Windows", in which space is depicted with the help of color contrasts. They created depth without the need for chiaroscuro.
In 1914, he paints the painting "In honor of Blériot" from the cycle "Round Forms". In it, the plot is of secondary importance. In creation, movement is sequentially transmitted with the help of disc-shaped alternations. He would return to this series in 1930, creating more perfect and dynamic works.
In 1920, his creation "Nude with a book" appeared, in which the artist applied a new technique for transferring the human body.
The true solution to his creative quest Robert will find in1930s Joy of Life series.
More information
Robert Delaunay (French artist) created canvases that are stored all over the world: in the UK, Japan, Australia. In Paris, the National Museum dedicated a separate room to the work of the Delaunay family (Pompidou Center).
The son of Robert and Sonia lived for 77 years and died in 1988. Charles studied the history of jazz and promoted this style in music.
