Sonia Delaunay

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Born in a Ukrainian village and raised in St. Petersburg, Sonia Terk moved to Paris in 1905, where she married the wealthy French painter Robert Delaunay. Amid a circle that included Guillaume Apollinaire and Blaise Cendrars, the artistic couple developed the theory of ``simultaneity,'' which led Delaunay to create her most distinctive paintings. Circular bands of intersecting color animate her magic disks, abstracts and epic murals, her portrait of flamenco singers and Young Girl with Pumpkin. The painter, who died in 1979, was a pioneer of modern art, yet, as this study notes, she seldom exhibited between 1908 and 1953, and she frequently had to endure her husband's ``flattering racialism'' that her amazing sense of color was atavique, a hereditary carry-over from her Russian-Jewish ancestry. First published in 1975 and out of print since 1983, this richly illustrated critical biography also documents the artist's contributions to interior design, theater sets, poster art and '20s fashions. (April)