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Couverture de Berceau by Sonia Delaunay
ORPHISM
The bright colors of a street in southern France outlined the black uniformed Gestapo agents as they raided a packed butcher’s shop. Theirs was a black and white world being swallowed by an explosion of color a few short weeks after D-Day. Along the counter one colorfully-dressed woman rummaged through her purse.
Sonia Delaunay was a Ukrainian-born Jewish artist stuck in France because her cancer-stricken husband couldn’t travel. Now, all that stood between her and a Gestapo-shortened future was a portly butcher. Waving a 100 franc note she loudly asked how much she owed. The butcher grabbed the note and threw change back. As others scrambled to pick it up, Sonia Delaunay calmly walked out the front door. She knew the color of money had magical powers.
Color was everything to Sonia Delauney. It was the focus of Orphism, the first truly abstract art movement championed by her and her husband. It was the secret to Sonia, her successful fashion line that helped them make ends meet as they built a following.
It was even the way she explained the world to her young son in her best-selling children’s book: A Life of Color. In the story, Sonia tells Charles how the colors sang to her when she sewed bits of fabric together to make his Ukrainian-style cradle cover. Charles says, “Momma, you must have really good ears because I can’t hear anything.” And, Sonia replies, “Your ears work just fine. But there are many different ways of listening.”
Sonia Delaunay survived the Nazis to become the first women celebrated with a retrospective art exhibition at the Louvre. The colors obviously sang to her in every way possible
Read the rest of the story, HERE
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