In August of 1915 Sonia and Robert Delaunay settled in Vila do Conde, a small seaside resort town near Porto. Fascinated by the light in Portugal, which they found warmer, more transparent, and gentler than the light in Madrid, they produced a series of works based on the technique of hot wax painting which allowed them to obtain saturated color effects: the wax, used as a pigment agglomerator, allowed for the formation of a dense and creamy mix that could then be applied with a spatula or a brush.

In their concentric or solar discs, the Delaunays studied the limits and possibilities of perception from the basis of Goethe’s color theory, focusing on the subjectivity and psychology of colors, and the idea of the Impressionist’s innocent eye, where the eye perceives blurred colors without dwelling on their meaning.

In Disque Portugal, Sonia Delaunay discards the representation of physical reality and focuses on light itself: the atmospheric expansion of the sun and the proliferation of incandescent colors. In this way, she tackles the simultaneity and instantaneity of communication, the symbol of modern times.