Kunsthalle Mannheim / Cem Yücetas
)La fenêtre sur la ville
Hector-Bau > Ebene 2 > Schaudepot
Intro
That Robert Delaunay has created a view of Paris is immediately obvious. Painted in the complementary colors of orange and blue-violet, the Eiffel Tower in the top half of the picture stands out clearly against the otherwise cool tones of the pictorial space. In contrast, the rest of the cityscape is cut into segments of color. This formal abstraction—the division of the motif into numerous areas of color—renders perspectival orientation more difficult and is a legacy of Cubism.
In the early 1910s Delauney increasingly liberated himself from the influence of the Cubists and their often monochrome palette, lending his city views a pulsating colorfulness which prompted the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918) to describe Delaunay’s paintings as “orphic,” as being both poetic and musical. At the end of this development, in his famous series of “Window Pictures”, we encounter pure abstraction, completely freed from the object: Paris has been transformed into a sea of colored planes.
Background
Robert Delaunay described the painting style, which, after years of experimentation, he had finally arrived at in around 1913, as »peinture pure«. Through mutual inspiration and co-operation, he and Sonia Delaunay-Terk (1885–1979) succeeded in creating paintings with a hitherto unknown wealth of light and transparency. Michel Eugène Chevreul’s (1786–1889) investigations into simultaneous contrast had convinced the artist couple to compose their increasingly abstract pictures using, for the most part, the primary colours red, yellow and blue, as well as their secondary mixtures green, violet and orange. As expected, the areas of colour placed directly next to one another complement each other, not only with regard to their luminosity. When looking at them, the human eye also perceives a change in colour, through which that which is represented appears to be set in motion. By means of the skilful interaction between the colours and other optical side-effects, the Delaunays succeeded in making the pace and rhythm of modern life perceptible in their pictures. The newly invented electric lighting, which immersed the Parisian night in bright lights such as had never been seen before, provided the initial spark. The intensity and purity of the artists’ palette, on the other hand, reminded Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918) of Orpheus, the singer-poet of Greek mythology, whereupon he coined the term “Orphism” for the paintings of his friend. Just as Orpheus aimed to create a form of music liberated from all superfluous elements, so Apollinaire understood the art of the Delaunays as pure painting based on the harmonies of the unadulterated chromaticity of light refracted through a prism.
Delaunay’s Window »Overlooking the City« was created precisely in the developmental phase of this style of painting based on simultaneous fields of colour. The artist had already established the composition of the painting, which belongs to his »Window series«, as early as 1910. In spite of the strong simplification and the Cubist-like fragmentation of the object forms, the subject on which the painting is based can be made out immediately: a view across an urban roof landscape. The viewer can make out the outlines not only of the framing subject, namely the window and curtains visible at the top edge of the picture, but individual roof gables, chimneys and house façades also gradually emerge. Green patches reminiscent of treetops are interspersed and separate the primarily blue architectural elements from each other. The characteristic silhouette of the Eiffel Tower rising up on the horizon finally identifies the cityscape as Paris. Although from 1910 onwards, Delaunay increasingly departed from a representational painting style, this significant landmark of the French capital appeared time and again even in many of his abstract works. In this steel construction, the artist had found a subject, through which he could best put his artistic innovations to the test. Like the rest of the colour scheme of the Mannheim painting, the bright red, in which the side of the tower facing the viewer is shown, also dates the work to the year 1914. Delaunay modified the composition, which he had begun four years previously but failed to finish, in line with his recently discovered style. The artist reworked the sea of houses, divided into separate cuboid forms, into the new colour scheme. Thus, the primary colours, applied here as a glaze, complement each other in their intensity and appear to be moving. Their interplay results in a flickering image of the metropolis full of light and transparency, reminiscent of a view through a kaleidoscope.
On loan from the State of Baden-Württemberg since 1966
Transkription
It’s Paris - easily recognizable by the landmark Eiffel Tower in the upper part of the image!
From 1910 to 1914, the painter Robert Delaunay created this window view of the French capital, where he was born in 1885. The tower is set off by its complementary orange and bluish-purple color, quite distinct from the rest of the image space where cool colors dominate. In the lower third of „La fenêtre sur la ville“ we can make out treetops and houses; shapes blur, however, in the middle of the image. The swooping lines to the right and left merely hint at curtains. Originally, Delaunay had trained as a theater painter. In this painting he dissects the city into radiant color areas streaked with white.
This division of the visual motif into numerous areas of color renders perspectival navigation difficult and is a legacy of Cubism. From 1910 onwards, Delaunay increasingly liberated himself from the influence of the Cubists with their mostly monochromatic work. He describes his work as a search for „the only reality there is, ‚the Light’!“ (...) „Light is not a method, it simply flows towards us and is conveyed to us by our sensitive faculties. – Where there is no light sense – no eye – there is no movement. Because it is our eyes which transmit sensation from Nature to our souls.“
By representing various nuances of light, Delaunay creates a vibrant colorfulness in his city views. This development culminates in pure abstraction, freed from the original object: in later versions of his „Window Paintings“ series, Delaunay even dissolves the Eiffel Tower itself, turning the city into a sea of colored planes.