Orphism

Type of abstract or semi-abstract painting practised by a group of artists in Paris between 1911 and 1914. Orphism owed much to the fragmented forms of cubism (indeed it is sometimes called Orphic cubism). However, while cubism at this time was coolly intellectual and almost colourless, Orphism used lush and exciting colour. The name Orphism was first used in 1913 by the poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire, alluding to Orpheus, the poet and singer in Greek mythology; it indicated that the Orphists wanted to introduce a feeling of poetry to the serious and strict approach to cubism, as practised by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. The central figure of Orphism was Robert Delaunay, and other artists in his circle included Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger, Francis Picabia, and the Czech-born Franz Kupka. Initially the Orphists based their pictures on the external world (Delaunay, for example, did a series of paintings featuring the Eiffel Tower), but by 1912 both Delaunay and Kupka (whose work was very similar at this time) were painting pure abstracts. These were the first abstracts painted by French artists.

The Orphist group was broken up by World War I, but in spite of its short life it had considerable influence. Several of the German expressionists, notably Paul Klee, August Macke, and Franz Marc, were greatly impressed with Delaunay's paintings (Klee visited him in Paris in 1912), and they adopted aspects of his style in their work, particularly his use of colour. Orphism was also very similar to Synchromism, a movement founded in 1912 by Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Morgan Russell, two US artists living in Paris. Their work helped to spread Delaunay's type of vibrantly colourful abstract painting to the USA.

Orphism

Ancient Greek mystery religion of which the Orphic hymns, poems attributed to the legendary poet Orpheus, formed a part. The cult dates from the 6th or 7th century BC, but the poems are of a later date. Secret rites of purification and initiation, accompanied by a harsh lifestyle, were aimed at securing immortality in the Islands of the Blessed.

Orphic myth The central deity in Orphism was Dionysus Zagreus. According to Orphic tradition, Zagreus was the son of Persephone, goddess of the underworld, and Zeus (in the form of a serpent). He was entrusted with the government of the world, but the Titans, prompted by Zeus's jealous wife Hera, sought to kill him. Zagreus, in an effort to escape, went through a series of metamorphoses, but was finally torn to pieces in the form of a bull. The Titans devoured his remains except the heart, which was preserved by Athena and delivered to Zeus who consumed the organ. Zeus immediately fathered Semele and, through her, Dionysus Zagreus.

In Orphic theology, Zeus destroyed the Titans with a thunderbolt and made mortals from the ashes which contained goodness from Zagreus and evil from the Titans.

Origins and beliefs Orphism probably originated from pre-Hellenic religion which had been preserved in secret societies. It included several elements which are absent from Homeric Greek religion, including a sense of sin and the need for personal atonement; the idea of the suffering and death of a god-human; a belief in immortality following a cycle of reincarnations; and an asceticism derived from the the tenets of the Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras. The function of Orphism was to liberate the good element in humanity, a concept which was regarded in the classical period as superstition, but was popular in the Roman empire.