1905 Building

Sonia Delaunay (French, born Russia, 1885–1979) was a multi-disciplinary artist, a key figure in the Parisian avant-garde, and a cofounder of Simultanism. In 1964, she became the first living female artist to have a retrospective at the Louvre. Albright-Knox Director Robert T. Buck, Jr., worked with Sherry Buckberrough, Professor of Art History at the University of Hartford, for three years to organize this exhibition, which was the largest survey assembled of Delaunay's work to date. It featured more than two hundred works created over the course of eight decades and included paintings, works on paper, and numerous decorative arts projects.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Assistant Curator Susan Krane organized a unique program of films, concerts, lectures, poetry readings, and a family workshop to highlight the multifaceted activities of Delaunay and her contemporaries in the Parisian avant-garde of the 1920s. A rare videotaped interview with Delaunay conducted in Paris in 1977 was available for viewing on the Video Vasari monitor in the exhibition. Also available was an audiotape tour of the exhibition recorded by the Buck and produced in collaboration with the Acoustiguide, New York.

The exhibition traveled to the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, The Grey Art Gallery and Study Center at New York University, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Musee d'art contemporain in Montreal.