Sonia Delaunay at Tate Modern

This way in

After resumption of Philosophical studies at City Lit this morning (more on this later) I thought a visit to Tate Modern was somewhat overdue and decided to remedy this.

The useful guide

The Exhibition that has started since my last visit is an interesting figure, that of Sonia Delaunay.

A feminist viewpoint might make the point that the male hegemony has tended to marginalise women in the Arts (And for that matter Philosophy too) clearly there's a tendency to often see the Women of strong partnerships to be the lesser creative but it seems to me this may not be the case for the Delaunays .

Sonia's personal story seems an interesting one she was all but adopted by a childless couple (her Uncle Henrri Teurk  and his wife) who gave her many opportunities to enjoy the rarefied world of Exhibitions and galleries.

Sonia spent time in France amongst the Fauvists and the De Brucke group and her second marriage to Robert Delaunay created a strong  artistic partnership.

After visiting  the exhibition I looked at a work by Robert (Endless rhythm) and it was clear to see the similarities between the work of the two artists..

What I would say about the work of this artist is that although it clearly has a style and visits many ideas more than once it does not as some of the exhibitions I've visited feel like too little spread rather thinly, there is a clear structure with figurative work giving way to abstraction and Delaunay  was able to work across a selection of materials and media- working in fashion poetry and commercial publishing.

My favourite works by Sonia were Electric Prisms and the Large and Small Flamenco paintings.

I found some of the works had a near Mondrian-esque quality and they did both connect sound and painting (and others have remarked on this).

Also of note was a film of Sonia's fashion designs made in 1925 but in Colour! Also worth noting were the dramatic works that Robert and Sonia collaborated on for the International Exhibition of Arts and Technology in Paris in 1937.

Another point is that having started a framing course I found myself studying the mounts.

And as the filmic homage to Banksy would say 'Exit through the gift store'