Art Deco Paris: 1900-1925, Princeton University Library

Art Deco Paris: 1900-1925

Princeton University Library

October 15, 2000 - April 8, 2001

One of Art Deco's most vivid legacies, the printmaking technique known as pochoir, is the subject of an exhibition in the Leonard L. Milberg Gallery for the Graphic Arts at Princeton University's Firestone Library. The exhibition captures not only a little known art form but the sensuous spirit of affluent society in the first quarter of the 20th century.

The approximately 100 original color prints in Art Deco Paris document the uninhibited era that gave us jazz, the tango, high fashion, and modern art. The pochoir process, which involved the manual application of gouache or watercolor pigments through the medium of stencils, was itself an intriguing marriage of commerce and art; of originality and mass production. At its height, there were some 30 pochoir studios in Paris employing a small army of workers around the clock, mostly women and children, who laboriously applied as many as 100 variations of color to a single print.

The vibrant colors and flamboyant designs that distinguished Art Deco, together with pochoir's Japanese heritage and contribution to modernism, are well-illustrated. Curator Dale Roylance, whose respect for pochoir is evident in both the exhibition and a 75-page, full-color catalog, has highlighted a number of themes, including the emergence of the female identity, the lure of the exotic, and the role of music and dance.

Visitors are struck by an arresting image of Josephine Baker atop a piano when Harlem met Paris in 1925; Henri Matisse's beautiful pochoir folio, Jazz; the languid figures of George Barbier, redolent of jaded wealth; and the fashion plates that proclaimed the arrival of haute couture. Through these unique prints, Dale Roylance tells the story of a world that defied convention and laid many of the foundations for our own.

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

www.princeton.edu

Aubrey Beardsley Centennial Exhibition, Princeton University Library

Aubrey Beardsley Centennial Exhibition

Princeton University Library

Through January 7, 1999

The Princeton University Library is currently commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of the Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (1872-1898), the celebrated English artist and book illustrator, with an exhibition in the Leonard L. Milberg Gallery for the Graphic Arts, Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library.

The exhibition draws on the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections’ unrivaled Beardsley holdings, including original drawings, posters, photographs, correspondence, literary manuscripts, illustrated books, memorabilia, and other materials. Most of these materials were donated to the Princeton University Library a half-century ago by A.E. (Albert Eugene) Gallatin (1881-1952), the American artist, art critic, art historian, and collector. Gallatin’s gift was supplemented by materials from the J. Harlin O’Connell Collection of the 1890s and by other gifts. With 125 original drawings, Princeton can boast the finest Beardsley collection in the world.

Aubrey Beardsley’s brilliant but controversial work was emblematic of the English fin-de-siecle. This most literary of artists was much influenced by the pre-Raphaelites, Japanese woodblock printmakers, and contemporary French writers. But he was more than the sum of influences, developing a unique artistic vision that was bold and original despite its eclecticism. Through his drawings and writings, he became the leading exponent of a British movement referred to by its detractors as "decadent," much as was Oscar Wilde in literature. 

While Aubrey Beardsley only lived to age 25 and is closely associated with the 1890s, he had a profound influence on visual arts and book illustration for decades. Among the nearly 100 items on exhibit are original drawings, first editions, and other materials pertaining to Beardsley’s contributions to Sir Thomas Mallory’s Le Morte Darthur (1893-94), Oscar Wilde’s Salome (1894), The Yellow Book (1894-95), The Savoy (1896-97), and The Lysistrata of Aristophanes (1896) and other illustrations published by Leonard Smithers. Also included are portraits of Aubrey Beardsley by such contemporary artists as Sir William Rothenstein and Max Beerbohm.

The exhibition is curated by Mark Samuels Lasner, author of Selective Checklist of the Published Work of Aubrey Beardsley (1995); and Don C. Skemer, Curator of Manuscripts.

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

www.princeton.edu