Delaunay, S.
Simultané. [by Sonia Delaunay].
Bielefeld, Bielefelder Spielkarten GmbH, 1964. 16 pp. booklet, partly printed in colour (12.6 x 9.0 cm) and 110 playing cards (9.2 x 6.0 cm) [two French decks with differently coloured backs in blue, black and white, combined with, respectively, red or green, each consisting of 52 standard cards and three jokers] in original transparent plastic box (13.2 x 9.8 cm).
A beautifully designed double set of playing cards, with an additional box and booklet, by the famous French-Ukrainian artist Sonia Ilinitchna Delaunay, née Stern (1885-1979) [some sources say Sarah Elievna Shtern]. Together with her husband, the artist Robert Delaunay, she developed "Orphism or Orphic Cubism, a term coined by the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire in 1912, [it] was an offshoot of Cubism that focused on pure abstraction and bright colors, influenced by Fauvism, the theoretical writings of Paul Signac, Charles Henry and the dye chemist Eugène Chevreul. This movement, perceived as key in the transition from Cubism to Abstract art, was pioneered by František Kupka, Robert Delaunay and Sonia Delaunay, who relaunched the use of color during the monochromatic phase of Cubism. The meaning of the term Orphism was elusive when it first appeared and remains to some extent vague (WikiArt). One of the 'red' jokers inscribed by Delaunay and dated 1977. Bottom of the box with a narrow elongate depression, probably caused by a burning cigarette, box otherwise in very good condition. The playing cards pristine.