THE ART DECO COLLECTION
Transcription
THE ART DECO COLLECTION
THE ART DECO COLLECTION THE ART DECO COLLECTION A collection of bronze sculpture, cast in the lost wax method, with patination, gold leaf accents and polished embellishments. erté at his easel, 1921 portrait in front of his artwork, 1924 f Jenkintown Press P h i l a d e l p h i a , P e n n s y lva n i a © 2005 chalk & vermilion fine arts and sevenarts in paris, 1922 erté in egyptian costume of his own design, 1919 The Art Deco Collection “The most gratifying feeling I experienced he name “Art Deco” costume, and graphic designs. “I am filled with a sense as I entered my nineties came from the came from the Exposition Internationale of excitement whenever I see and touch a bronze from my Although in his late eighties as he worked on the plans des Arts Decoratifs Industriels et Modernes, sculpture collection,” he said “through which I have been and forms of the bronzes, Erté occasionally recalled how held in Paris in 1925, which celebrated able to see my drawings, thoughts, ideas and dreams come the costumes for his theatrical productions looked in the living in the modern world. Art Deco to life as never before.” limelight. The model for Starfish, for example, prompted immediate success of my sculpture collection, and the realization that I have touched the or excess. lives of so many art collectors who might was popularly considered to be an elegant style of cool The bronze sculptures in The Art Deco Collection many such memories. Erté lucidly described how he outfitted never have known this phase of my work…” sophistication in architecture and the arts, similar in epitomize the hallmark style elements of Art Deco— other members of the troupe as entrancing lobsters, rays, —Ert é some regards to the earlier Art Nouveau style, but with a streamlined, elegant, with a graphic quality that hints at octopuses, and goldfish and how these dancers were almost more Modernist aesthetic. Innovations in design for home the Cubist influence on the Art Deco magical in maneuvering on that house’s notoriously narrow furnishings, fashion, and architecture were enthusiastically movement. As with so many of his stage with its eighteen steps. Additionally, received by post-wwi Parisians, hungry for style, elegance graphic and sculpture artworks, many as artist Henry Moore once said, “Every and modernization. In his autobiography, Things I Remember, are based on fashion or theatrical sculpture must have its own life,” and such Erté says, “Art Deco has influenced the greater part of the designs. Starfish was originally a costume was the case for each of the Erté sculptures twentieth century. It is an evolution from Art Nouveau in design for the Folies-Bergère production of “Fonds de combination with the geometric forms of Cubism.” la Mer,” in 1919. Cabaret, so evocative of the cabaret-style ERTé In that year, Erté had already risen to the top of his field shows of the day, was created originally as a costume based on previous illustrations. In fact, rarely did Erté execute a sculpture exactly from the original two-dimensional image, often changing colors of a as a fashion designer and illustrator, theatrical costume and design for a production entitled “Walzertraum,” set designer, and was on his way to Hollywood to design for in 1940. Soleil de Nuit was originally a fashion film. His influence on the art, fashion and industrial worlds illustration that appeared in Harper’s Bazaar in was already well established—for this reason, he is often 1917. Chinchilla, also based on a fashion design Each sculpture, exquisite to behold, referred to as the Father of Art Deco. Many years later, for Harper’s Bazaar in 1924, typifies the elegant is as lively in spirit, stylish in manner and in 1967 (still working at an age when most people would female form that Erté favored, with a stunning consider retiring), Erté began to think about producing costume that only a woman with such poise could limited edition graphics after a show of original works in carry off. Others, based on gouache paintings, include New York City, all of which (179 artworks) were bought Roaring Twenties, whose outfit and “look” embody works, illustrations whose images were by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The resulting graphics the archetypal flapper icon so often associated with that dynamic and appealing, whose costumes were an immediate success, and soon thereafter an idea decade. Rose Dancer, from her perch on a rosebud, dances conveyed his stylistic development from luxury began to form that perhaps he should expand his vision as lightly as a rose petal on the wind. On the Avenue, is a and grace to wit and flamboyance, and whose to the medium of sculpture. This was a natural avenue to figure definitely dressed and ready to see and be seen. Café figures could be precisely and accurately rendered pursue, as Erté’s two-dimensional work on paper was always Society, whose posture and gown personify the glittering in bronze. Erté blazed a trail in the fashion and theatrical designated for three-dimensional application. The idea of nightlife of the fashionable and beautiful and Michelle, who worlds where no other designers had gone before. His artwork figurative bronzes was thrilling to Erté, who at the time was seems to characterize the Art Deco look to a “t”—cool, continues to delight, and serves as a memorial to one of the entering his nineties, bringing to life his favorite theater, elegant, clean lines that make an impact without fussiness most imaginative and exciting artists that has ever lived. costume, or the angle of an arm to give the figure stability, or enhancing elegance with jewels or crystals, added for texture and sparkle. innovative in approach as was the artist who conceived them. He used his abundant artistic talents to choose, from his previous front cover: Rose Dancer, 25H x 7H x 7 inches 2 3 4 Michelle, 20¾ x 14 x 8¾ inches Café Society, 22 x 13 x 10 inches 5 6 Starfish, 20 x 15 x 10 inches Soleil de Nuit, 19½ x 13 x 7½ inches 7 8 Chinchilla, 21½ x 9¼ x 8½ inches Cabaret, 22¼ x 15¼ x 7 inches 9 10 Roaring Twenties, 18 x 8 x 7¼ inches On the Avenue, 21½ x 10¾ x 7¾ inches 11 Selected Chronology 1892 1913 1915 Born: Romain de Tirtoff, St. Petersburg, Russia. First important commission for leading Paris couturier Paul Poiret. Creates costumes for dancer/spy Mata Hari. Begins 22 years with Harper’s Bazaar, with first cover illustration published in January issue. 1919 Begins 11 years with Folies-Bergère as main set and costume designer. 1920 Designs for opera diva Ganna Walska. 1921 Designs for prima ballerina A. Pavlova. 1922 Costumes/sets for G. White’s Scandals. 1923 Costumes/sets for Ziegfeld Follies, New York City 1925 Costumes/sets in Hollywood for mgm, Cecil B. DeMille and William R. Hearst. 1933 1945 Designs for the Bal Tabarin, Paris. 1964 1966 1967 Costumes/sets, World’s Fair, New York City Costumes/sets for Rossini’s Barber of Seville, French tv, the Lido and Bal Tabarin. Featured in Les Années 25, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris. nyc exhibition of 170 gouaches, Grosvenor Gallery, purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City 1968 First lithographs, The Numerals. 1970 Chevalier du Mérite, Artistique et Culturel awarded by France. 1974 First serigraphs introduced. 1976 “Officer of Arts and Letters,” France. 1978 Costumes/sets for Strauss‚ Der Rosenkavalier, Gyndebourne Opera. 1979 Erté — Or a Magician in the 20th Century, French tv. Smithsonian 1980 1985 1989 First sculptures introduced. Erté Retrospective. Costume/set designs for d.c.’s Kennedy Center Stardust and 1990 Easter Show, Radio City Music Hall, New York City 1990 Introduces 50 new sculptures and 50 new serigraphs, all appearing in Erté, The Last Works book published by Dutton. Institution three-year traveling retrospectives. Awarded France’s “Legion of Honor.” Erté died on April , in Paris. 1993 Exhibit at the Grosvenor Gallery, London 1996 “The Erté of Excellence Award” created by the fashion industry and awarded to honor the individual having had the greatest impact on the nation’s fashion industry each year. 2001 Retrospective held at the Museo del Corso in Rome, Italy, entitled “Fascino e Seduzione Deco” (Art Deco Charm and Seduction). 2003 Original gouache paintings of The Alphabet Suite exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France. Original costume designs exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, “Erté—Opera and Ballets Russe.” 2004 Erté, original gouache paintings and collages exhibited at the Robert Sandelson Gallery, London, England. Erté—Back to Russia, paintings, prints and sculpture exhibited at Gallery Donde, Moscow, Russia. Estée Lauder cosmetics introduces a line of powder compacts, featuring the twelve Erté Zodiac images. 12 <Martin•Lawrence Galleries = R www.martinlawrence.com (800) 877-2250 New York • Beverly Hills • Newport Beach • Los Angeles San Francisco • Chicago • Maui • New Orleans • Dallas • Boston