Très Parisien, juin 1922: 13 (Spécimen gratuit) - SOUCI 1922

Editor: Here we have "Trés Parisien, juin 1922", a watercolour painting, a fashion plate actually. It is in the Art Deco style, currently residing in the Rijksmuseum. There’s something immediately striking about the simple lines and how they define this figure. What really jumps out to me is how flat and yet, somehow, elegant it feels. How do you see this piece, knowing what you know? Curator: Oh, this takes me back! The flatness is indeed key, darling. Think of it as a beautiful rebellion against stuffy old portraiture. We're shedding layers, both literally in fashion and figuratively in art. The art deco lines and the simplified forms? They're all about speed, modernity, and a dash of cheekiness. Notice the color choices, how they create contrast without depth. The whole image is built around suggestions. And consider, for a moment, this wasn’t fine art in the stuffy sense; it was mass-produced and cheaply distributed as marketing, just *imagine* the ubiquity and impact that would have. Editor: Cheekiness is a perfect way to put it. And it’s interesting how something mass-produced can still feel so carefully composed. But, why do you suppose artists gravitated towards this flatness and simplicity? Was it just about rebelling against tradition? Curator: Partially, of course. But imagine, too, the Roaring Twenties - a generation shedding old skins after the darkness of the war. The economy roared; fashions changed. A more accessible mode of creation allowed more expression of the collective joy. These fashion plates promised an affordable taste of that chic, modern life. That tension—something simple and purchasable versus beauty—is really the key. Editor: I never considered the element of commerce behind what appears like a refined artwork, makes one look at art in a new lens. It feels good to have learned something new today. Curator: Exactly! We're just at the beginning.