Simultaneous Windows (2nd Motif, 1st Part) (Les Fenetres simultanees [2e motif, 1re partie])

Angled rectangles and triangles stack and intersect across the surface, their edges tilting in shades of blue, yellow, orange, green, and purple that shift from pale to deep. Nothing settles into a figure or a landscape; the shapes seem to lean against one another, catching light and shadow in their overlapping planes. This oil painting, titled Simultaneous Windows (2nd Motif, 1st Part), was made in 1912 by Robert Delaunay and is held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, where it entered the collection as a gift. Delaunay, a French painter born in 1885 and died in 1941, worked within Orphism, a movement built on color and abstraction rather than recognizable subjects. Looking closely, the purple and orange tones near the center seem to pulse forward, while the cooler blues and greens recede toward the edges, giving the whole arrangement a quiet sense of depth without any single vanishing point.