Gin 1932

Curator: So, here we have Charles Turzak's "Gin," a 1932 print steeped in the visual language of Art Deco. Quite the period piece. Editor: My first impression is just...dizzying. In the best way! All these jagged, almost frantic lines really capture the hectic feeling, or maybe the *desire* for that kind of feeling, associated with gin. It's definitely evoking that particular cocktail culture from back in the day. Curator: Indeed. It's an interesting commentary, I think, on the roaring twenties and the subsequent Prohibition era. Turzak, though perhaps lesser known today, really encapsulates some important characteristics from the American art scene in that time, a visual tension between celebrating modernity, but doing so through old fashioned means. Editor: Right? There's that classic woodcut or linocut vibe but pushing boundaries and hinting at futurism, what a gorgeous friction! Look at those cityscapes battling against geometric shapes that feel ready to take flight! I keep returning to those two cocktail-sipping figures in the upper reaches – almost floating in a smoke-filled nirvana. Curator: What strikes me is how he frames the 'low life' subject matter – card games and boozing – within this streamlined, modern aesthetic, giving a sense of order and sophistication, however artificial, that the lifestyle portrayed surely lacks. It points towards a larger phenomenon of how the museum systems in that time played, quite actively, to change the understanding of 'American Art' into something to admire. Editor: You know, when you put it that way, I do notice how detached and idealized the image feels. Almost as though the characters have willingly played the parts, which leaves the viewer distant and cold. So I guess a work like this captures the complex, intertwined, sometimes contradictory relationship between a culture’s art and how that culture perceives itself? Curator: Precisely. It embodies a distinct vision of modernity, and prompts us to examine both what was celebrated, and at what cost. Editor: Yeah, and also how things change or stay the same - after all! This print definitely reminds us how important visual echoes remain in art across years. It’s about fashion as much as anything else!