Robert Delaunay (1885-1941)

French painter, Robert Delaunay became a full time artist in 1904 after his training in decorative painting. He devoted the majority of his career to experimenting with the abstract qualities of color. He investigated the interaction of large areas of juxtaposed and contrasting color, exploring his interest in the interaction of color and movement. In 1910 Delaunay made a notable contribution to Cubism with his series of paintings of the Eiffel Tower in which he combined vibrant colors and fragmented forms. In 1912 Guillaume Apollinaire, a French poet and influential art critic, gave Delaunay’s work, now completely abstract, the name Orphism. Delaunay and Orphism served as an influence to the German Expressionists, Futurists in Italy, and the American Synchronsists.