Dubonnet

Sonia Delaunay, with her husband Robert Delaunay, was actively involved in developing a personal evolution of Cubism that was labelled Simultanism, which towards 1912 would flow into abstraction. A year later, she began working on Contrastes simultanés (Simultaneous Contrasts), a series of abstract works based on different coloured disks which interact with the spectator’s retina, creating a sense of rhythm and movement. In the years that followed, Sonia Delaunay would apply these same motifs to new mediums such as graphic and textile design, clothing and ceramics. Dubonnet is one such example of design applied to a poster, with Delaunay drawing from the advertising tradition, whereby the advert communicates little on the product to potential clients other than its name, in this case a famous liqueur. Nevertheless, it was not commissioned by the company that fabricated the drink, nor was it offered to be used as publicity. Its aim was purely artistic: “An abstract investigation on letter forms and relations between letter forms and the colours around them”. The text at the bottom, “ATELIER SIMULTANE SONIA DELAUNAY”, was possibly added by the artist in 1924, after having created Atelier Simultané to print her “simultaneous textiles” and for other commercial initiatives.

Raúl Martínez Arranz