"Homage to Bleriot" by Robert Delaunay (101-104)

When did the first decade of motorized flight begin?

1903

Who initiated the first decade of motorized flight?

Orville and Wilbur Wright

Where was the first completed successful flight?

Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

What was the status of the airplane in art during the first decade of motorized flight?

Not many artists portrayed it as a form of transportation

When compared to what older mode of transportation were airplanes not considered practical for transporting people?

Trains

How did airplanes differ from railways in terms of their effect on daily life?

Railways saturated the public consciousness and daily life while airplanes didn't

Why were airfields often not a part of daily life when compared to railways?

They were often located far from city centers

The core functionality nof railways required what?

Easy access by a large number of people

Who were airplanes largely reserved for in their early days?

Stunt people and specialized fliers

Around what year did artists begin to independently think about how abstract art could render the new form of flight?

1913

What 4 nations featured artists which began to think about airplanes in abstract art around 1913?

Britain, France, Italy, and Russia

Was the thinking about flight in terms of abstract art across Britain, France, Italy, and Russia simultaneous?

No it was almost simultaneous

What was Robert Delaunay notable for doing in 1913?

Beginning to think about how abstract art could render flight

What natiuonaly was Robert Delauney?

French

What movement was Delauney associated with?

Orphism

Which of Delaunay;s works combines his application of color theory and his celebration of modern technology?

Homage to Bleriot

Whom did Delaunay praise in ‘Homage to Bleriot?”

Louis Bleriot

Who was Louis Bleriot?

A celebrity aviator, and inventor/manufacturer of airplanes

When did Robert Delauney create his self portrait?

1905-1906

What stunt flyer is depicted among “Bugs” McGowan and Sig Haugdahl?

Mabel Cody

Who is Mabel Cody?

A stunt flyer

Who are “Bugs” McGowan and Sig Haugdahl?

daredevils

What are Mabel Cody, “Bugs” McGowan and Sig Haugdahl depicted doing in the iconic image?

Performing a feat of aerial acrobatics

Where were Mabel Cody and the daredevils performing their aerial acrobatics in the image?

Pablo Beach, California

Where was Robert Delauney born?

Paris

When was RObert Delauney born?

1885

What did Robert Delauney do as a teenager in temrs of art?

He painted theatrical backdrops

What did Robert Delaunay apprentice doing?

Painting Theatrical backdrops

Was Robert Delaunay trained in fine art?

No official training

Who was Delauney inspired by?

The works of Paul Gauguin and Paul Cezanne

In relation to himself, what was the age relationship to Delauney’s influences? Who were his influences?

They were one generation older than him; Paul Gauguin and Paul Cezanne

The works of Paul Gauguin and Paul Cezanne led Delauney ot become interested in what two aspects of art?

Color theory and abstraction

What styles did Delauney experiment with before 1909?

Styles ranging from impressionism To Fauvism

What style did Delauney become associated with in 1909?

Cubism

What was one of Cubism’s main innovations?

To break down traditional reliance on 3d Illusions

How did artists usually create 3d illusions?

Shading and Linear perspective

Cubists embraced what formal features of 2d surfaces?

The flatness of the canvas or other surfaces

How did Cubists represent space?

Fragmented and built to out of overlapping shapes as if their subjects were seen from multiple perspectives simultaneously

Delauney experimented with Cubism over what years?

1909-1912

What famous locations did Delauney create images of in the Cubist style?

The city of Paris and the Eiffel Tower

Who were the leaders of Cubism?

Pablo picasso and Georges Braque

What caused Delauney to leave the Cubist movement?

The leaders of cubism were more interested in shapes over color and Delauney was more interested in color

What was Pablo Picasso and George Braque’s opinion on the use of intense colors around 1912?

They felt that color was a distraction from their strict analysis of space and perspective

The works of Picasso and Braque around 1912 were increasingly what?

Monochromatic

What was Delauney interested in which caused him to leave the Cubist movement?

Psychology and the optics of color

Who was Delauney’s wife?

Sonio Terk

Who was Sonia Terk??

A Russian painter and textile designer

What art movement was Sonia Terk associated with before 1912?

Cubism

When did Sonia Terk leave cubism?

1912

Did Delauney and Delauney-Terk collaborate?

Not explicitly

What occured in Delauney and Sonia Delauney-Terk’s art from 1911 through the early 1920s?

They had a very similar style

Delauney and Sonia Delauney-Terk had a similar style when>?

1911 through the early 1920s

How were Sonia Terk and Delauney’s art similar from 1911 through the early 1920s?

They both featured almost fully abstract arrangements of brightly colored patterns and shapes

What shapes did Delaunay and Delaunay-Terk tend towards?

Circular or disk like forms

Who coined the name Orphism?

Guillaume Apollinaire

Who was Guillaume Apollinaire in relation to the Delaunay's?

Their friend

What was Guillaume Apollinaire’s profession?

He was a poet

What was the name “Orphism” inspired by?

The ancient Greek legend of the musician Orpheus

Orphism was based off whose works?

The Delaunay and their almost fully abstract brightly colored patterns and shapes with a trend towards circular/disc-like forms

What did Orpheus embody for Apolloinaire?

Art-making that was deeply emotional and often spiritual

How did Orphism differ from cubism?

Orphism was deeply emotional and spiritual while cubism was intellectual and detached from anything mystical

Who else did Apollinaire group into the orphist category?

Fernand Leger, Francis Picabia, and sometimes Marcel Duchamp

Orphism had a _______ period of notoriety

Brief

When was Delauney commisione for many public murals?

Late1930s

When did Delaunay pass away>?

1941

Delaunay’s work blended what?

Intellectual rigor of chromatic theory with an instinctual understanding of emotive power of color

What contemporaries did Delaunay influence?

Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Josef Albers

What 2 expressionists did Delaunay influence?

Wassily Kandinsky and Klee

What Bauhaus teacher and theorist did Delaunay influence?

Josef Albers

What artist of the 1960’s and 70’s did Delaunay notably influence?

Kenneth Nolan

Kenneth Nolan was a notable _________ painter

hard-edge abstraction

Kenneth Nolan was of what nationality?

American

When was Homage to Bleriot made?

1914

“Homage to Bleriot” was from early in what period of Delaunay’s career?

His Orphist period

How many versions of

“Homage to Bleriot” did Delaunay make?

Several

What was Delaunay’s practice regarding multiple versions of a painting?

He often made multiple versions

Why did Delaunay often createmultiple versions of the same work?

TO work through the theme with different color combinations to see what one created the most effective optical vibrations

Where did Delaunay learn to see create more effective optical vibrations?

From his studies of 19th century color theory

What did 19th century color theory posit?

That placing complementary colors together caused each to appear brighter and more dynamic

What did multiple nested disc shapes create in most color combinations create?

Sensations of whirling movement across the center of the canvas

What did Delaunay cryptically describe

“Homage to Bleriot” as?

“multiple disk prisms that flood the earth, from which airplanes depart”

What did Delaunay write about the mobility of

“Homage to Bleriot?”

“Constructive mobility of the solar spectrum; birth, flame, flight of airplanes… The motor in the picture.”

Who made “Propeller?”

Robert Delaunay

When was Robert Delaunay’s “Propeller” made?

1926

Most of “Homage to Bleriot” is fully what?

Nonrepresentational

At least how many recognizable forms exist in “Homage to Bleriot?”

Four

What are the four recognizable forms in “Homage to Bleriot?”

The nose of an airplane with a large propeller, the Eiffel tower and two airplanes

What aspect of “Homage to Bleriot” is a common motif of Delaunay’s works during the period?

The Eiffel tower

The airplanes in “Homage to Bleriot” are what color?

One is orange outlined in Kelly green and the other is white and maroon biplane

The plane seen from below in “Homage to Bleriot” is of what color?

Orange and outlined in Kelly green

The plane of what color in “Homage to Bleriot” is a biplane?

White and maroon

The biplane in “Homage to Bleriot”s seen from what perspective?

At an angle

The biplane in “Homage to Bleriot” is outlined in what?

Concentric rings of peach, yellow orange, purple brown, and pale pinkish-purple

In addition to showing Delaunauy’s experimentation with color what else does “Homage to Bleriot” show?

Delaunay’s passion for aeronautics

What works exemplify Delaunay’s passion for aeronautics?

“Propeller” and “The Cardiff Team”

When were the various versions of “The Cardiff Team” made?

1912-1914

What is at the base of “Homage to Bleriot?”

An inscription

What does the inscription at the base of “Homage to Bleriot” translate to?

“the ‘first simultaneous solar discs’ to the great constructor Bleriot”

How does Louis Bleriot’s reputation differ now vs during his own time?

He isn’t known today but back in the 1910s he was a familiar name to any aviation-minded ivewer

Who was the first to fly across the English Channel?

Louis Bleriot