Alphabet U 

Editor: Here we have Erté's "Alphabet U", a drawing, and its playfulness is immediately striking, don't you think? The letterform itself is so ornate. How do you interpret this work from a formalist perspective? Curator: The configuration immediately presents a dual structure; there's the manifest letter ‘U’ and then there is the latent figurative aspect with male figures forming the sides and ends of the letter. It appears Erté has deftly intertwined these figures with grapevines. We could look at the line, the geometry, the interplay between positive and negative space. Notice how the solid black background isolates the "U", drawing attention to its contours. What do you notice about the textural components? Editor: The grapes seem almost hyper-real in their detail against the figures, yet they form this abstract 'U' shape, if that makes sense. Almost like they're both decoration and structure at the same time. Curator: Precisely. It seems Erte aimed to deconstruct how letters might transcend their linguistic meaning. Is the medium, being drawing on (presumably) paper an important consideration? Does its being, or lack of, flatness come to mind? What might semiotics contribute in your consideration of this image? Editor: Well, if we consider drawing's innate flatness...the drawing is undeniably flat, yet Erté creates an illusion of depth through shading, suggesting the figures inhabit a real, three-dimensional space. Semiotics might see the ‘U’ as a signifier divorced from its usual signified, almost an empty vessel. But is the image not about anything beyond the interplay of form and line? Curator: Agreed; the erotic overtones further complicate it, don't they? The arrangement of figures and the medium through which they are viewed seem key here. Editor: Definitely! I hadn't fully considered the layers of depth he achieves just through line and shading; there’s definitely much more there than first meets the eye. Curator: Absolutely, and observing such visual relationships is paramount. We’ve observed a fruitful intersection of form and semiotic play in Erté’s work today.