Sonia Delaunay Inspired Drawings

Last week in my Modern Art class we looked at the work of Sonia Delaunay.  I've always really liked her work and I try in class to present both male and female artists.  It seems in the canon of art history she gets overshadowed by her husband even though she's the one to have a retrospective at the Louvre while alive.

I always show examples of the artist's work in class as inspiration.

Rythme, source Wikipedia

Composition,  source: Tampa Museum of Art

Focusing on these two circular compositions, the students were asked to draw a line all the way across their paper with a pencil and ruler.  Then, they traced circles.  I brought some circles I'd cut out of paper board, tupperware lids and plastic containers to provide a big variety of circles.  At least some of the circles needed to interact with the line they had drawn.  Here's a computer generated sample.

Then they used markers to color in their shapes.  They were encouraged to not let the same colors touch and to think about what kind of new shapes they'd get out of their color choices.

If you'd like to learn more about Sonia Delaunay here are some sources:

Cooper Hewitt Museum
Database of Women Artists

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