Sonia Delaunay artist and ground- breaking entrepreneur
The Tate Modern is currently showing the retrospective of the Russian born french artist Sonia Delaunay. The body of work on display is quite astonishing in that she was so prolific during her 94 years lifespan.
Of particular interest to me is that she was a serious artist but also had such entrepreneurial spirit, not in the sense of Andy Warhol or Damien Hirst for example, but more in the true meaning of the word, where she actually explored various avenues and created products that were derived from her works yet did not detract or undermine the source and became an extension of her vision.
Many famous artists indeed have had commercial links with projects in the theatre, dance and even cinema and fashion. I’m certain when these occasions for collaboration arise the parties ponder whether the project might damage their reputation and credibility. Rarely is this the case but it quite a step for a serious artist, and it must have been for her but she embraced it without hesitation.
After the Bolshevik revolution 1917,out of necessity, as and her family funding from Russia was cut off, at the age of 33, Delaunay was forced to look for ways to supplement her income. Un-phased by the turn of events she opened a store called Casa Sonia in Madrid (where she was living with husband Robert) a fashion and design shop selling accessories, furniture, fabrics and commissioned clothing design.
Her artwork was so colourful and graphic and abstract that it was perfectly adapted to fabric and fashion that the shop was a huge success and led to branches being opened in Bilbao, San Sebastian and Barcelona.
Returning to Paris with Robert in 1921, their home on Boulevard Malesherbes became a lively showcase to her talents and business headquarters. It became so successful that she set up a fashion house called Simultane in 1925 complete with an atelier of Russian seamstresses.
It was the Simultane Boutique installation at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts that brought her to the attention of Joseph de Leeuw, owner of Metz and Co, a luxury department store in Amsterdam, who fell in love with her work and began to commission and buy her textile designs. It was a close relationship that lasted into the 1960’s.
How fascinating that she designed and painted well into her late years and was still collaborating on an array of projects in up to 1976 when at age 91, she developed a range of textiles, tableware and jewellery with French company Artcurial, inspired by her work from the 1920s. She write her autobiography was published in 1978 only a year before she passed away aged 94.
An eye opening exhibition and a wonderful example of an inspirational, modern artist and female entrepreneur.