Rubans de Couleurs. Ribbons of Colour. by Sonia Delaunay, 1885-1979

Sonia Delaunay, 1885-1979
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Rubans de Couleurs. Ribbons of Colour.

Original lithograph in colours. 1962. Signed and dated in pencil. Numbered (19) from the edition of 40 impressions only. Printed in Paris probably at the Mourlot studio, 1962. Rare.

Excellent impression with brilliant colours. On pale cream wove Arches-type paper. Generally excellent condition; very slight traces of old mounting etc on the reverse top of the sheet. Printed virtually to the full sheet size, as issued. Sheet: 27 7/8 x 20 ins. (710x510mm)

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A very strong and striking example of the best of Sonia Delaunay's work in colour lithography at the beginning of the 1960's. It is a powerfully composed example of the way that she was seeking to use colours and shapes, and the differing colour absorption and reflection of differing shades, to create an abstract spatial structure of lines and planes.

Robert and Sonia Delaunay had begun work on this type of use of colour as early as around 1912. Robert had been experimenting with ideas developed from Cubism and an abstract use of light from about 1909/10. In 1910 he married Sonia and from about the following year they both began to experiment with abstraction based purely on colour and on the visual values of juxtaposed colours. Robert's paintings which he called 'Les Disques' were the first great expression of this concept, but they worked very closely together, and by 1920 Sonia's contribution was certainly as great as his. Their concept of how colours inter-react with each other, some absorbing light some reflecting, and how colour can be used to 'arrange' space became one of the central themes of the whole 'Abstraction-Création' movement from the 1930's onwards. In the years after the second war Sonia began to concentrate on the use of graphic techniques, exploiting the way that ink colours could be used to develop her ideas of colour composition.