Piet Mondrain | Outside The Lines

Art and jewelry merge at this year’s Biennale des Antiquaires. At this biannual event, collectors are presented with high fashion jewelry created by top designers. The jewelry is rare because designers craft pieces to reflect famous artwork. To create these pieces, jewelers are pulling their inspiration from artists like Impressionist painter, Monet and Dutch artist, Mondrian. The result is a unique set of designs driven by the tastes and preferences of modern art’s most significant influences.

~Claire Dévé-Rakoff is creative director at Chaumet. She insists that color will take precedence over stones this year. Her palate was comprised of soft pastels pulled straight from the Impressionist era. In fact, she directly references Claude Monet when mentioning Chaumet’s theme of light and water. She is especially interested in the way light and water play together and the color combinations that are created as a result; yellow diamond and blue sapphire, for example.

~Chanel also plays with light in its Sunset collection. The work conjures the emotion and calm of pink and golden sunsets. White diamonds and pink sapphires mix with pastel opals to imitate the streaks of color seen at dusk. Their centerpiece, a necklace of white and pink gold, surrounds a sapphire with subtle hints of orange.

~A designer returning to the show this year, Wallace Chan of Hong Kong, found inspiration in the work of Piet Mondrian. Chan’s attraction to geometric shapes and clean lines was due to, what he called, “a quest for purity.” Bright green garnets and tourmalines contrast pink rubelittes and sapphires in a gorgeous ring.

~A newcomer to The Biennale, Giampierro Bodino, calls on Italian influences and colors, particularly those of Renaissance painter, Sandro Botticelli. No doubt there’s a bit of national pride behind the Milanese designer’s work, as Italy, perhaps more than any other country, has a rich heritage of art and culture. Pastels and vibrant colors are present here, providing beautiful combinations. A cuff designed by Bodino is made up of green chyroprase which sits inside purple sapphires and diamonds of white gold. Another cuff features light pink opals set against pink sapphires and diamonds, mounted in rose gold.

It is a year of new influences at the 2014 Biennale des Antiquaires. Well, new influences that, at the same time, happen to be old. Top designers found a wealth of inspiration for color and tone in the works of famous artists of the past. This inspiration is credited with producing collections of vibrancy, elegance, and simplicity. It’s a communication between the arts. Indeed, it’s like a miniature renaissance in jewelry.

Read more Segmation blog posts about art and color:

Basic Color Theory – Color Matters

Can Color Exist in the Dark?

The Psychology of Color

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There once lived an artistic trailblazer named Robert Delaunay. He had a unique perspective, a countercultural technique, and a desire that drove him to be different.

Parisian born Delaunay greatly influenced abstract art. He was one of the first nonrepresentational painters who advanced the style of cubism. The cubist painter added bright and bold shades of color to his work and was on the front lines of a style called Orphism.

In fact, the name Orphism didn’t exist until 1912 when a French poet by the name of Guillaume Apolliniare declared that work of this style (and especially work by Robert Delaunay) had musical qualities and ought to be named after Orpheus, the singer from Greek mythology who was often inspired by magic and ideals that were anything but ordinary.

Receiving great recognition for his innovative art style juxtaposed Delaunay’s early life. He was born in 1885 and very little information was published about his early training. However, it has been reported that his uncle, who became his primary caregiver after Delaunay’s parents divorced, sent him to art school after he failed an important school exam. As a result, Delaunay was able to influence the development of abstract art in France and throughout the world.

As Delaunay blazed a trail with his knack for colorful cubism, he was mimicked and challenged by his contemporaries. He and Jean Metzinger often painted together and hosted joint exhibits. In 1907, while in his early 20’s, Delaunay and Metzinger shared an exhibit where they were dubbed as “divisonists.” Divisionism is another word for pointillism. Calling them divisionists was the best way critics could describe their foreign use of “mosaic-like ‘cubes’ to construct small but highly symbolic compositions.”

With such recognition, a new branch of Neoimpressionism was born. The very style Delaunay and Metzinger were thought to originate went onto appear in works of Piet Mondrain, The Futurists and Gino Serverini.

Some people say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, which might have been so for Robert Delaunay too. However, he probably would have appreciated some financial attributes during the early rise of his career. At the time, he was not able to support himself on his artwork alone so he designed theatre sets full-time and painted in his spare hours.

In 1908 he met a woman by the name of Sonia Trek. Sonia, an artist, would become his wife and influence Orphism alongside him. They would work on many projects throughout their relationship, but before they got to producing joint works of art, Delaunay would go onto create some of his most famous pieces.

Delaunay began painting colorful, cubist inspired cathedrals and the Eiffel Tower in 1910. He painted several series that are still discussed today for their dynamism and bold coloring. These series include the Saint-Sévrin series (1909–10); the City series (1909–11); the Eiffel Tower series (1909–12); the City of Paris series (1911–12); the Window series (1912–14); the Cardiff Team series (1913); the Circular Forms series (1913); and The First Disk (1913).

As his style evolved, he separated himself from other abstract painters with an interpretation of cubism that was anything but traditional. In fact, by the time he moved onto his “Windows” series, he was solely creating nonobjective paintings. Still, many contemporaries and artists of his time, like the group of Expressionist painters from Munich by the name “The Blue Rider,” gravitated to his style and adopted some of its traits.

Throughout his remaining years, Delaunay and his wife worked together on theatre designs as well as a large mural for the Paris Exposition of 1937. These years were checkered with war and financial struggle. For instance, when Delaunay did not fight in World War I he was labeled a deserter. Then, when the Russian Revolution took place, the Delaunay’s were severed from the financial support they received from Sonia’s family.

By the time World War II broke out, Robert Delaunay had cancer. He and his wife tried to avoid German forces by moving to Auvergne, but Robert’s health deteriorated quickly after the move. In 1941, at the age of 56, he died in Montpellier France.

A lot can be said about Robert Delaunay, but rarely do people discuss his desertion from the military or tragic death. Robert Delaunay is known for infusing color into cubism. In doing so, he created a nonobjective approach that would influence art and aspiring artists for years to come.

However, this post is meant to recognize his artist style and some major pieces. For those who want to read more of Robert Delaunay’s story, visit this link: http://www.segmation.com/products_pc_patternset_contents.asp?set=DEL. Also, Segmation is proud to offer 25 digital Thomas Delaunay patterns. By downloading these paint by numbers masterpieces, you can emulate one of the most fascinating artists who ever lived.

Enjoy the 25 Thomas Delaunay Landscape patterns. Segmation has for you and continue to learn and celebrate the life of a great artist.