Circular Forms 1930

Curator: Robert Delaunay created this canvas titled “Circular Forms” in 1930. It's currently held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Editor: Hmm, immediate impression? It feels like looking directly into the sun...but a kind, forgiving sun. Less harsh, more… melodic. Curator: It’s a quintessential example of Orphism, a movement Delaunay co-founded. You see the interplay between pure color and geometric abstraction. There’s also some Cubist undertones here, of course. Delaunay’s engagement with optical effects and how they reflect modern life is clear. Editor: Definitely feels modern...almost like a fractured stained-glass window exploded and reassembled itself as pure feeling. You know, it also makes me think about time—cycles, orbits, beginnings, and ends. Curator: Color was incredibly important to Delaunay, influencing perception. He wanted to create visual experiences akin to music—harmony through chromatic relationships. Remember how the era defined modernity in new media and technologies like radios and recorded sound? It's easy to imagine how these influenced the artist to "tune" with color. Editor: I see what you mean, the "harmony" resonates… there's this incredible lightness. Yet I find it so interesting how these supposedly abstract forms...manage to evoke nature, and a strange nostalgia to summer, at the same time. Even though the colors aren’t literal. Curator: Right, abstraction offers avenues of symbolic and emotional resonance beyond the literal. Delaunay wanted the visual language of color and form to liberate viewers. These pieces allow them to create individual and shared emotional connections based on our histories. Editor: Exactly. And there's a lasting power, right? Almost a century later, here we are, still getting lost and then found within this painted solar system. Curator: That’s the legacy—transcending time and culture with the universality of abstraction. It seems like we always end up finding meaning in color, form, or shape. Editor: For me, it's more about what those colors, forms, and shapes trigger. So here's to seeing the sun...or whatever inner world springs to mind!