“Disque (Le premier disque)” (1913) by Robert Delaunay, limited giclee reproduction

Inspired early on by the Neo-Impressionism of Georges Seurat, the Frenchman Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) began painting alongside the artists of the "Blue Rider" group in 1911. At the Munich-based group's first exhibition, he sold the most paintings of any of the artists. Unlike Kandinsky, Delaunay focused on light. His window paintings, the "Fenêtre," led him to what Guillaume Apollinaire later termed "Orphism." In these works, vibrant fields of color form the depicted shape. During this period, Delaunay definitively turned away from Abstract Cubism. A further development of his "Fenêtre" series, the various "Formes circulaires" (Circular Forms), begun in the same year, mark the beginning of abstract painting in France in 1912.