Robert Delaunay “Windows Open Simultaneously 1st Part, 3rd Motif” (Fenêtres ouvertes simultanément 1ère partie, 3e motif ) at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice

Painting - Oil on Canvas (57 x 123 cm) 1912

Windows Open Simultaneously Robert-Victor-Félix Delaunay was born on April 12, 1885, in Paris.

In 1902 he was an apprentice in a theatre setting workshop.

He began painting the following year, in 1903.

From 1904, Robert Delaunay was exhibited at the Salon des Independants until the First World War.

In 1905 he became friends with Douanier Rousseau and Jean Metzinger.

In 1906, Robert Delaunay exhibited at the Salon d'Automne.

Windows Open Simultaneously At that time, his style was still Neo-Impressionist, with a strong influence of Paul Cézanne.

His making was built from 1909 onwards.

In 1910 he married the painter Sonia Terk, who became famous as Sonia Delaunay.

In 1911, Robert Delaunay began exhibiting in Germany and met Wassily Kandinsky, who invited him to participate in the “Blue Cavalier” exhibition, the “Blaue Reiter” in Munich.

That same year, he became friends with Guillaume Apollinaire and Albert Gleizes.

In 1912 Robert Delaunay began his “Windows” series, including the one exhibited at the Guggenheim Collection.

Windows Open Simultaneously Guillaume Apollinaire fell under the spell of this colourful “Windows” by Delaunay and, to better describe them, invented the word “Orphism” or “Cubic Orphism”.

In his “Windows” although cubism is revealed by the presence of the oval and the deconstruction of forms and their interconnection, Delaunay gave up the brown monochromatic of cubism to replace it with translucent colours.

Concerning his “Windows”, Delaunay defined his work as:

“The idea of a painting that would technically hold the only contrasts of colour, but developing over time and perceiving itself simultaneously in one stroke.”
Robert Delaunay

Thanks to simultaneous colour contrasts, colourful composition turns into an unlimited field of chromatic agitation. “Simultanéisme”, Delaunay would say, is a “static movement”.

From 1914 to 1920 Delaunay lived in Spain and Portugal and became friends with Russian ballets master Serge Diaghilev and composer Igor Stravinsky.

Robert Delaunay died on October 25, 1941, in Montpellier.

Windows Open Simultaneously