Skip to content
Home/ Harmony and Dissonance: Orphism in Paris, 1910-1930
Harmony and Dissonance: Orphism in Paris, 1910-1930

Harmony and Dissonance: Orphism in Paris, 1910-1930

by Harmony and Dissonance: Orphism in Paris, 1910-1930
No customer reviews yet ISBN 9780892075645 Guggenheim Museum Publications

The first publication of its kind, connecting a constellation of artists working at the forefront of abstraction in the early 20th century

Orphism emerged among a cosmopolitan group of artists active in Paris in the early 1910s, as the innovations of modern life radically altered conceptions of time and space. Engaged with ideas of simultaneity in kaleidoscopic compositions, these artists investigated the transformative possibilities of color, form and motion. Often featuring disks of brilliant color, their work evoked multisensory experiences. When pushed to its limits, Orphism signaled total abstraction. The poet Guillaume Apollinaire, a contemporary, coined the term "Orphism" to describe this move away from Cubism, toward a physically and spiritually transcendent art. His concept referred back to the Greek mythological poet and lyre player Orpheus, whose music thwarted death.
The first in-depth examination of the Orphist avant-garde, this revelatory exhibition catalog contextualizes Orphism, tracing its roots, exploring its cross-disciplinary reach and considering its transnational reverberations across 16 illustrated texts by a multigenerational group of authors from different fields. Incisive essays offer new perspectives, delineating Orphism's connection to music, dance and poetry, and investigating the historical and cultural circumstances that shaped its ethos. More than 90 artworks in multiple mediums are punctuated by micro-narratives that view select artists through the Orphist lens, presenting original scholarship on well-known figures such as Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay, Frantisek Kupka and Francis Picabia while also illuminating lesser-known ones such as Mainie Jellett, Morgan Russell and Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso.

About the author

Product details

BrandGuggenheim Museum Publications
Pub dateDec 10, 2024
ISBN-100892075643
ISBN-139780892075645
LanguageEnglish
Dimensions11.5 × 0 × 9.25 in
Weight3 lb
Last updated 2026-04-23 15:02
$45.35 $65.00 30% off
You save $19.65 · list price $65.00
Only 14 left in stock — order soon
Delivery by Monday, September 14, 2026
Qty
Sign in to Add to Saved list
Free delivery on orders over $35.
15-day returns. Any reason.
Secure checkout. We never store card details.

Readers who bought this also bought

More from Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions - Group Shows
See all
[Re]imagining Science
Irmscher, Christoph
$8.62
Mixed Use, Manhattan: Photography and Related Practices, 1970s to the Present
Mixed Use, Manhattan: Photography and Related Practices, 1970s to the Present
$38.39
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
<b>Artists and writers go beyond disciplinary boundaries and linear histories to address the fight for environmental justice, uniting the Asia-Pacific vantage point with international discourse.</b> <p/>Modeling the curatorial as a method for uniting cultural production and science, <i>Climates. Habitats. Environments.</i> weaves together image and text to address the global climate crisis. Through exhibitions, artworks, and essays, artists and writers transcend disciplinary boundaries and linear histories to bring their knowledge and experience to bear on the fight for environmental justice. In doing so, they draw on the rich cultural heritage of the Asia-Pacific, in conversation with international discourse, to demonstrate transdisciplinary solution-seeking. <p/>Experimental in form as well as in method, <i>Climates. Habitats. Environments.</i> features an inventive book design by mono.studio that puts word and image on equal footing, offering a multiplicity of media, interpretations, and manifestations of interdisciplinary research. For example, botanist Matthew Hall draws on Ovid's <i>Metamorphoses</i> to discuss human-plant interpenetration&#x3b; curator and writer Venus Lau considers how spectrality consumes--and is consumed--in animation and film, literature, music, and cuisine&#x3b; and critical theorist and filmmaker Elizabeth Povinelli proposes "Water Sense" as a geontological approach to "the question of our connected and differentiated existence," informed by the "ancestral catastrophe of colonialism." Artists excavate the natural and cultural DNA of indigo, lacquer, rattan, and mulberry&#x3b; works at the intersection of art, design, and architecture explore "The Posthuman City"&#x3b; an ongoing research project investigates the ecological urgencies of Pacific archipelagos. The works of art, the projects, and the majority of the texts featured in the book were commissioned by NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. <p/>Copublished with NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
$41.88
New Realisms: 1957-1962: Object Strategies Between Readymade and Spectacle
Available
$32.88
Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011
Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011
$18.98
Links: Australian Glass and the Pacific Northwest
Halper, Vicki
$62.67