Abstract Art

Sonia Terk-Delaunay (Sarah Ilinitchna Stern), a French avant-garde artist, illustrator, sculptor and designer of Jewish origin was born in Ukraine. The master worked in the styles of cubism, orphism and abstractionism. There are a few facts that eloquently testify to the great significance of her contribution to the development of avant-garde art: she became the first artist whose lifetime exhibition was organized in 1964 in the Louvre, and ten years later she was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor. She was among the organizers of the international association "Abstraction-Creation".

An Italian painter and sculptor, author of theoretical works on art. Lucio Fontana is considered the most radical artist after Kazimir Malevich, who managed to bring art to a new round of the development of abstraction and minimalism. The name of Fontana is associated primarily with his cut paintings: the artist unsparingly cut them with a sharp blade or pierced his canvas with a knife. But he did not intend to destroy his works. He just wanted to expand the pictorial space of his painting, to make them voluminous and evoking different associations.

Frantisek Kupka was a Czech artist and writer who lived and worked in France for most of his life. He is rightly considered one of the pioneers of abstract painting in the history of fine art and one of the first completely unrepresentative artists. In 1912, he participated in the Golden Section Cubist exhibition at the Salon des Indépendants, exhibiting, among others, the works that are considered the first abstract paintings.

An outstanding British sculptor, one of the key figures in the avant-garde art of the country. Sir Anthony Caro was known for his innovative solutions, which were much ahead of their time and set the stage for future changes in three-dimensional art. Being for some time an assistant to his famous compatriot Henry Moore, the sculptor became a follower of his undertakings in the field of avant-garde sculpture, expanding the framework of the traditional idea of ​​this art.Caro's most famous works are large abstract sculptures painted in one bright colour and standing on the ground, without any pedestals, allowing the viewer to take part in the composition. The sculptor created his works in accordance with the environment in which they were supposed to be installed. He always insisted on the direct connection of architecture with sculpture, and even coined a special term for works that are at the junction of these two types of art - “Sculpitecture”.Of great importance were also the many years of Caro’s teaching activity. His unconventional approach to form and space opened up new possibilities and had a great influence on young sculptors. Among his students at different times there were such outstanding personalities as Philip King, Barry Flanagan and Richard Long, called the "new generation" of English sculpture.

A few decades after her first experiments in colour rhythmic painting, a new development of the geometric form appeared in the works of Delaunay. Rectangles reduce the fluidity of rounded shapes, and this significant change indicates that the author continued to explore the topic throughout her career.

From the 1930s, Delaunay began to study the motives of “rhythms”, created compositions with the placement of a number of colours, complementing or contradicting each other. This work is of particular importance - it was created for the 15th annual exhibition of the Tuileries Salon in Paris.

The painting at the Aviation Palace in Paris is part of a series that Delaunay and her team of artists made for the International Exhibition of Art and Technology. The order marked the return of the artist to painting, attracted considerable attention to her, and was financially profitable for her.

Delaunay's career went far beyond the scope of visual art and included the design of interior design, clothing, fabrics and accessories. This canvas directly relates to her work as a designer of women's dresses - her textiles under the brand name Casa Sonia became popular and sold all over the world, without losing their relevance to this day.

Delaunay wrote, "Endlessly diverse images are promised to the one who knows how to appreciate colour relationships, the influence of one colour on another, their contrasts and dissonances." The canvas in the style of orphism offers the viewer just such images.

This long-format illustration of the poem by Blaise Cendrars is considered a "simultaneous book". The two-meter strip, folding like an accordion, demonstrates the technique of manipulating colour for maximum expression.

Terk-Delaunay's attention to how complementary colours react to each other was not limited to painting. The artist boldly applied this powerful technique to areas where such methods were not previously known - in the design of clothes and accessories, in the world of home decor items.

The work demonstrates Sonia’s great concentric circles at their best. The composition interpreted by the name as an ode to modernity refracts the lights and bustle of Saint-Michel Boulevard into almost complete abstraction.

The flow of colour and rhythm depicts several pairs (or one rotating in dance) under multi-coloured electric lights - the latest Parisian sensation. The painting was panoramic and the largest of the four versions - 3.9 m long and was the first work where the artist used contrasting colours such as blue and orange, located next to each other for maximum intensity.

One of the earliest figurative works demonstrates the author’s fascination with Post-impressionism; in particular, Fauvism. The artist contrasts the warm yellow skin of the model with the strokes of the colour of cold emerald.

This work by Kupka is more abstract in comparison with other canvases from The Machine Cycle. The sharp contrasts between black, white rod-shaped elements and segmented discs in bright red, orange and blue tones have a visual spontaneity.

One of a series of 16 abstractions painted by Frantisek Kupka in the late 1920s and early 30s. The first 12 works were originally published in 1933 on one page of the second issue of the Review, and all 16 were later published as a separate volume. This composition consists of minimalist lines; other works of the series include circles, spirals and rectangles.

Kupka’s desire to capture the sensation of light passing through coloured glass led to the appearance of a number of compositions on the theme of cathedrals. It is no coincidence that the author calls the work “memory” since it is an abstraction.

This painting can be reviewed as a synthesis of the ideas of Frantisek Kupka in the field of cosmic symbolism and his beliefs about the hidden "inner" sense of real objects. It also reflects his interest in the scientific theories of motion, light and colour.

It was one of the very first abstract paintings that were publicly exhibited in Paris. Experts believe that Kupka came to a cycle of such compositions gradually, starting in 1907 with a drawing of a girl holding a ball in her hand.

The title of the work is a reference to the theory of colour, developed by Isaac Newton in the 17th century. Kupka represents the sun in the form of an intense red circle breaking up into its parts.

The work belongs to the period when Frantisek Kupka passed the stages of fascination with Cubism, Futurism and Fauvism. The brightly coloured canvas consists of uneven verticals that almost hide the face of the artist’s wife as if enveloping it.

In this work, Kupka shows the successive phases of the movement of a woman rising from a chair and leaning toward flowers. Kupka indicated "different intensities of experience" by using the colour and thickness of the strokes.

Although the plot of the work is quite academic - a female nude - the artist used unrealistic colours to model the body and face of the naked model, his wife and muse Eugenia.

In this early-made painting, Kupka relied on religious images, especially Buddhism and Theosophy, to present general ideas of birth and renewal.

Mediums: painted wood, plexiglass. Location: the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (the USA).

Mediums: steel. Location: The Yorkshire Sculpture Park (the UK).

Mediums: patinated and varnished steel. Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, the USA).

Mediums: steel. Location: Tate Modern Gallery (London, the UK).

Mediums: stell. Location: Tate Modern Gallery (London, the UK).

Mediums: stell. Location: Museum of Modern Art (New York, the USA).

Материалы: сталь. Местонахождение: частная коллекция.

Mediums: steel and aluminum. Location: Tate Modern Gallery (London, the UK).

Mediums: steel. Location: Museum of Modern Art (New York, the USA).

Mediums: steel. Location: Tate Modern Gallery (London, the UK).