Salon Sonia

At the end of the 1940s, Sonia Delaunay welcomed a young artist passionate about abstraction, newly arrived from her native Hungary, named Vera Molnár. The godmother of abstraction is said to have told her, “My child, you will go far if you work hard.” A mentor to young artists and a friend of writers, poets, and publishers, Sonia Delaunay spent her life hosting salons, notably at 16 rue Saint-Simon in Paris’s 6th arrondissement, where she lived and worked after the 1930s. Not far from this studio, and 47 years after the artist’s death, “Salon Sonia” moves in May–June 2026 to 20 rue de Seine, at Galerie Zlotowski, to host six contemporary artists who will engage in dialogue with her across time. Sonia Delaunay’s career was exceptional in both length and diversity, beginning in the early 20th century and continuing tirelessly until her last breath in 1979. Her independent spirit and the multifaceted nature of her practice resonate strongly with contemporary art. Several characteristics of her work, revolutionary in their time, remain highly relevant today. She developed a form of abstraction that was both conceptual—based on an ultra-simple and recognizable vocabulary—and at the same time sensitive and vibrant, with an embraced imperfection that became her hallmark. The extraordinary range of media she explored and the projects she undertook illustrate her rejection of hierarchies between fine art and craft. She consistently advocated for an art “within life,” grounded in the practice of simultaneism (developed with Robert Delaunay in the 1910s). This practice consisted of a set of avant-garde applications, never fixed in theory, always in motion. This “simultaneism” in action was notably expressed in the 1920s through her well-known entrepreneurial ventures in fashion, and beyond that decade through a prolific output in textile design. Sonia Delaunay also ventured into an exceptionally wide range of fields, including furniture, objects, tapestry, playing cards, poetry illustration, graphic design, and children’s books. This absence of boundaries between practices long cost her a place in art history, as historians privileged painting above all else. However, recent exhibitions (beginning with the 2014 show at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Tate Modern in London) have restored textiles and other previously marginalized aspects to the center of her work. Finally, Sonia Delaunay’s artistic life was marked by collaborations and encounters, particularly with artists from other disciplines. These friendships led to numerous projects guided by personal bonds. Among them, in chronological order, are Blaise Cendrars, Amedeo de Souza Cardoso, Tristan Tzara, Felix Aublet, the Arp couple, and in the 1960s, Jacques Damase, who brought her renewed momentum. The works presented in “Salon Sonia” seem, each in their own way, to follow these threads: unexpected media, playful approaches, and pieces that place color at the center of composition—a principle to which Sonia Delaunay remained faithful throughout her life. This is not a solemn or faithful tribute, but rather an informal salon celebrating a practice that is dynamic, alive, and sensitive.