Enthusiastic New Yorker – ‘Why, sir, all our women are beautiful here in America. I defy you to find a really ugly face on the avenue’ 1917

Editor: This is “Enthusiastic New Yorker,” a pen and watercolor drawing by Ralph Barton from 1917. It looks like a social satire of New York high society. All those furs! The men peering out the window almost seem…trapped? What are your initial thoughts on this piece? Curator: Trapped is an interesting choice of words! I see a bustling energy, a city vibrating with self-importance. Barton has this amazing ability to capture the zeitgeist with such witty economy. Don’t you think the women resemble giant, fashionable caterpillars, cocooned in wealth and status? And what do you make of the guys upstairs? Editor: Caterpillars…I like that. I didn't really consider it that way, but that makes so much sense now! The men seem to be observers, aloof or maybe even disapproving of the opulence below? Is the cartoonish quality typical for that time period? Curator: Absolutely. Barton was a master of caricature, skewering the pretensions of the wealthy. It was the Jazz Age, remember. An era of great change, and art mirrored the shifting sands, both celebrating and poking fun. I wonder what kind of conversations Barton witnessed to inspire such pointed work? Editor: So, it’s playful but also critical. Sort of a glamorous indictment? Curator: Precisely. He's both fascinated and faintly repulsed. It’s this delicious tension that makes it so compelling, even a century later. And the quote in the title just adds another layer, doesn't it? That unbridled optimism masking perhaps a deeper insecurity. Editor: I see it now. I originally just thought it was…fashion. Now it all makes sense, there's so much more to it! Curator: Exactly! Isn’t it marvelous how art continues to reveal new things each time we engage with it? Editor: Definitely gives me a lot to think about when I see "fashion" or "socialites" or "cityscapes" going forward. Thanks!