Robert Delaunay, 1906-1914 : De L'impressionnisme À L'abstraction

Exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, 3 June - 16 August 1999

As a painter of modern life who developed a purely optical conception of painting on the fringe of the spiritual foundations of Kandinsky, Mondrian and Malevitch, Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) appears to have been an essential bridge-builder between Impressionism and the great formalist currents of 20th century abstraction.

This exhibition catalogue underlines the historic role of Robert Delaunay in the birth of abstraction and the place he occupied, on the eve of the First World War, within the international avant-garde. It brings together the series produced by the artist up to 1914, in particular the important sets of Eiffel Towers, Windows, and Circular Forms, representing some one hundred works by the artist (paintings and drawings).