Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) - Simultane

Sonia Delaunay - Simultaneous Playing Cards

Bielefelder Spielkartenfabrik GmbH 1964, 52 playing cards + 2 Jokers, booklet with description in the languages (German, English, and French) from 1964, original box held with clips (only the original), one corner of the box is torn.
Very rare original edition. Most of these games are offered by the Vereinigte Altenburg-Stralsunder, who reprinted the game until around 2000.

Colorful Bridge - a game by the Russian-French artist. As early as 1938, Delaunay designed individual playing cards, after which the artist was encouraged by Eberhard Binder, the director of the German Playing Card Museum, to create a complete deck. Initial sketches of the game Simultané were made in 1959, and a first proof was produced in 1961. - With a trilingual accompanying booklet. - "Primarily three... fundamental ideas of painting are realized in the game: the reduction of detail in favor of the essential, the intrinsic value of pure color, and the 'contrastes simultanés,' the simultaneous contrasts... Simultané is unique among the modern playing cards known so far. In its clarity, it throws all conventions overboard" (accompanying booklet 1964, p. 6).

The back design is a variation of the traditional Harlequin pattern. There are two versions, one in red/blue (not available) and the one presented here in green/blue. The figures of king, queen, and jack are identical in each of the four colors. To facilitate handling the cards, the artist developed an additional color system. The same colors are used for the twelve cards, but each color has a different dominant color: blue - clubs, green - spades, red - hearts, and yellow - diamonds. Since this is an original from 1964, all the playing cards still have a black border around the card image. Comparison photo of the 1980s edition.

Sonia Delaunay disciplined her vitality to create a seemingly straightforward composition of shapes and colors, yet her essential lyricism is evident. Sonia Delaunay was born in Russia in 1885. Her art was one of the first forms of abstract painting; she influenced Paul Klee and preceded Mondrian and Matisse.