PHILADELPHIA, PA.- On 26 April 2018, PIASA’s Editions department will offer a unique private collection of decorative art by Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), following on from the successful first sale of her work – featuring a rare collection of rugs and tapestries – at PIASA in 2017. Fashion will be the focus this April, with an exceptional ensemble of scarves, hand bags, handkerchiefs, tablecloths and prints.

"She could do everything - painting, fashion, textiles, theatre costumes, rigs, plates, posters, furtiture - and everything she did was as modern as jazz." – Diana Vreeland in Sonia Delaunay: Art Into Fashion

Sonia Delaunay, The First Artist-Decorator
Decorative art was an important part of Sonia Delaunay’s œuvre, doubtless reflecting her Russian origins. She was born in Odessa in 1885, and was unquestionably influenced by Russian popular art with its painted furniture, gilded mosaics, icons and brightly coloured fabrics, embroideries and buildings.

A Hymn to Colour and Pattern
The notion of simultaneity is central to Sonia Delaunay’s approach. It involves translating one form of modernity into another, and one genre into another. The laws of simultaneous colour-contrast mean the eye combines two different points of colour to form a new or modified colour. All her works, whether plastic or decorative, are lyrical poems to colour.

Sonia Delaunay's Love of Fashion and Textile
Artist, decorator, fashion designer –Sonia Delaunay was a pioneering figure in pictorial abstraction, always trying to reconcile art and life by breaking down the barriers between the arts. As well as painting, she designed sets and costumes for Serge Diaghilev, worked with Coco Chanel and Blaise Cendrars in the 1920s and, in the 1930s, pursued a host of edition projects in France and the United States – broadening her approach to incorporate a variety of different supports.

A Private French Collection
In 1970 Sonia Delaunay created special editions for Artcurial – returning to some of the main themes from her pictorial works, and transforming fashion accessories into works of art in their own right. Illustrated books, patterns from theatre designs and her iconic prints Circus and Autumn are highlights of this unique collection of around one hundred items.

″ The theatre of colour was composed like a poem by Mallarmé or a page by Joyce: with pure, perfect juxtapositions and precise sequences, with each element rigorously accorded its proper weight ″ – Jacques Damase in Robes Poèmes