Recently, the Saint Louis Art Museum requested the loan of materials from Special Collections and Archives for use in their exhibit Roaring: Art, Fashion, and the Automobile in France. The exhibit untangles the impact of fashion, interiors, architecture, aviation, and the avant-garde on French automobile design and production.  

The Saint Louis Art Museum requested a loan of Sonia Delaunay: ses peintures, ses objets, ses tissues simulantés, ses modes (1925) from our collection of rare books. The richly illustrated album illustrates Delaunay’s distinctive visual language, which she applied to textiles, interiors, automobiles, and fashion.

Ukraine-born Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) trained in Russia and Germany, finally moving to France and expanding her art to include textile, fashion, and set design. She was the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre (in 1964) and was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor. The Saint Louis Art Museum chose four of the loose leaf pages from the Delaunay book to exhibit, which are pictured here.

Roaring runs through July 27at the Saint Louis Art Museum. Further information about the exhibit can be found at this website: https://www.slam.org/exhibitions/roaring-art-fashion-and-the-automobile-in-france/. 

Special Collections and Archives is thrilled to have our materials showcased in an exhibition in a world-class art museum. Inquiries about any of our materials and collections can be addressed to Archives@missouristate.edu.