Composition for XXe Siecle 1972

Sonia Delaunay made this striking print, Composition for XXe Siecle, using lithography, a really physical process of drawing and printing. I can imagine her in the studio, wrestling with the stone, coaxing these vivid colours into being. Look at the way these bold shapes jostle against that field of yellow, how the red pops against the green and blue. It’s not just decoration, it's like she's trying to find some kind of visual harmony, hitting a bum note here and there, but always striving for that sweet spot. You know, I reckon she was thinking about colour theory, about Mondrian and the Bauhaus, but then also remembering those folk textiles from her childhood in Russia. That little smudge of black at the bottom? It could almost be a signature, a gesture.