Orphism or Orphic Cubism, a term coined by the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire in 1912, was an offshoot of Cubism that focused on pure abstraction and bright colors, influenced by Fauvism, the theoretical writings of Paul Signac, Charles Henry and the dye chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul. This movement, perceived as key in the transition from Cubism to Abstract art, was pioneered by František Kupka, Robert Delaunay and Sonia Delaunay, who relaunched the use of color during the monochromatic phase of Cubism. The meaning of the term Orphism was elusive when it first appeared and remains to some extent vague.
Robert Delaunay, Simultaneous Windows on the City, 1912, Kunsthalle Hamburg
František Kupka, Katedrála (The Cathedral), 1912-13, oil on canvas, 180 x 150 cm, Museum Kampa, Prague, Czech Republic
Sonia Delaunay, 1914, Prismes électriques, oil on canvas, 250 x 250 cm, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Robert Delaunay, Champs de Mars: The Red Tower 1911. Art Institute of Chicago.
Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist and art critic of Polish descent.
Photograph of Guillaume Apollinaire in spring 1916 after a shrapnel wound to his temple
Apollinaire, 1902, Cologne
"La Joconde est Retrouvée" (The Mona Lisa is Found), Le Petit Parisien, No. 13559, 13 December 1913
Jean Metzinger, 1911, Étude pour le portrait de Guillaume Apollinaire, graphite on paper, 48 × 31.2 cm, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris