Orphism (art) - Apollinaire

Apollinaire

The term Orphism was coined by poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire at the Salon de la Section d'Or in 1912, referring to the works of František Kupka. During his lecture at the Section d'Or exhibit Apollinaire presented three of Kupka's abstract works as perfect examples of pure painting, as anti-figurative as music.

In Les Peintres cubistes Apollinaire described Orphism as "the art of painting new totalities with elements that the artist does not take from visual reality, but creates entirely by himself. An Orphic painter's works should convey an untroubled aesthetic pleasure, but at the same time a meaningful structure and sublime significance. According to Apollinaire Orphism represented a move towards a completely new art-form, much as music was to literature. Orphic painters cited analogies with music in their titles; for example, Kupka’s Amorpha: Fugue in Two Colors (1912) and Francis Picabia’s abstract composition Dance at the Source (1912) and Wassily Kandinsky’s Über das Geistige in der Kunst (1912). Kandinsky's detailed theoretical essays described the correlations between color and sound. Robert Delaunay, also preoccupied with relations between color and music, highlighted the purity and independence of color, and successfully exhibited with the Blaue Reiter at the invitation of Kandinsky. Fernand Léger and Marcel Duchamp, as they tended towards abstraction, were also included as Orphists in the writings of Apollinaire.

Apollinaire stayed with the Delaunays during the winter of 1912, becoming close friends and elaborating on many ideas. Apollinaire wrote several texts discussing their work to promote the concept of Orphism. In March 1913 Orphism was exhibited to the public at the Salon des Indépendants. In his review of the Salon published in L’Intransigeant (25 March 1913), Apollinaire wrote that ‘it combines painters of totally different characters, all of whom have nonetheless achieved a more internalized, more popular and more poetic vision of the universe and of life’. And in Montjoie (29 March 1913) Apollinaire argued for the abolition of Cubism in favour of Orphism: ‘If Cubism is dead, long live Cubism. The kingdom of Orpheus is at hand!’

The Herbst salon (Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon, Berlin) of 1913, organized by Herwarth Walden of Der Sturm, exhibited many works by Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Jean Metzinger’s l'Oiseau bleu (1913, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris), paintings by Picabia, Léger and Albert Gleizes, along with several Futurist paintings. This exhibition marked a turning-point in Apollinaire’s relation with R. Delaunay (which would cool markedly), following some remarks in an argument with Umberto Boccioni about the ambiguity of the term ‘simultaneity’. This would be the last time Apollinaire used the term Orphism in his critical analyses of art; as he turned his attention increasingly towards Picabia and Alexander Archipenko, but most of all towards the Futurists.