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| Sonia Delaunay Simultaneous Contrasts 1913 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) and Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) married in Paris in 1910. They encouraged each other to rely on color in their art. They stayed active during the big mess of World War I by living and working in Spain and Portugal. There they met and began to collaborate with Diaghilev. An exhibition of Sonia Delaunay's work at the Louvre in 1964 was the first retrospective mounted in that palace to honor a living woman.
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| Robert Delaunay Woman with a Parasol 1913 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Robert Delaunay Portuguese Woman 1916 oil & wax on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
These paintings were all made around the time of World War I, even though the viewer will search in vain for miseries or horrors. It appears that those who formed the Thyssen-Bornmenisza Collection (where this work now dwells) may have made the explicit choice to document European art of the war years produced outside the context of the war.
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| Theo van Doesburg Composition II Still Life 1916 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Liubov Popova Painterly Architectonic (Still Life Instruments) 1915 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| František Kupka Position of Mobile Graphic Elements I 1912-13 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Francis Picabia Predicament 1914 watercolor Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Fernand Léger The Disc 1918 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Wilhelm Trübner Lake Starnberger 1911 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Sun Over Pine Forest 1913 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Auguste Macke Circus 1913 oil on cardboard Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Alexandra Exter Still Life 1913 collage & oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemimsza, Madrid |
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| Conrad Felixmüller Portrait of Elfriede Hausmann ca. 1917 oil on canvas (recto) Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Auguste Herbin Head 1918 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
I am grateful to Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza for the excellent reproductions.