Bebe Coreen En Costume De Ceremonie. Seoul 1934

"Bebe Coreen En Costume De Ceremonie. Seoul" is a print by Paul Jacoulet. What is striking is the flatness, the arrangement of areas of colour, and the balance between pattern and plainness. I can imagine Jacoulet at work here, carefully layering the blocks of colour, thinking through the composition and how the child is posed. The kid's got a look of deep concentration. The whole image vibrates with a really specific kind of tension. Look at the light green ground, a quiet backdrop, and the saturated stripes of the costume. I can see those colours echoed in the work of other artists. It’s like they are all having a conversation. It’s easy to get stuck on representation, but the real juice is in how artists are constantly challenging our vision and creating new ways of seeing.