"Simultané" Sonia Delaunay’s Iconic 1964 Art Inspired Double Deck Playing Cards

Sonia Delaunay was a 19th century French Ukrainian painter who was well known for her exploration with simultanism and her contributions to the Orphism movement. Simultanism that is, the simultaneous nature of the contrast of colors is a sub category of Orphism that Sonia and her husband, specialized in. Their abstract and Cubist art style often experimented with the perception of colors in different lightings, layerings, and mediums. Guillaume Appollinaire, a famous art critic, applauded Mrs Delaunay’s art for its, as he described, musical and poetic qualities - qualities that are by nature definitive of the Orphism movement. Delaunay decorated a home, designed furniture, and even had a boutique decorated in her fashions. She also created some once very popular textile patterns - her style heavily inspired by Ukrainian garments and culture was lauded by many. Indeed, she was so recognized that she was one of the first women to hold a ‘retrospective exhibit’ (Tate Modern, 2021) in the Louvre in 1964. Two of her more notable pieces are Electric Prisms from 1914 and Yellow Nude from 1908. Ignoring the need to please her audience with normative beauty aesthetics, Delaunay focuses on enrapturing her audience with her bold use of color and vivid contrasts.