Three Faces 

Curator: Stepping into Erte's world, we encounter "Three Faces," a work with a delicious Art Deco flavour, reminiscent of a stylish cartoon sketch. The image presents us with a stylized face repeated thrice. What strikes you most about it? Editor: Immediately, the color palette grabs me—that intense blue background. It's like gazing into twilight, and it really makes the pale yellows and whites of the faces glow. It feels cool and elegant, but slightly melancholic, wouldn’t you say? Curator: Yes, that blue is striking! It amplifies the theatricality, doesn’t it? Erte, whose real name was Romain de Tirtoff, really mastered that kind of stage presence. As an iconographer, what symbols catch your attention? Editor: The eyes, absolutely. Each face has closed eyes, and each a different colour, creating a sort of chromatic harmony of slumber. It brings up questions about the many aspects of a single persona, doesn't it? And what about the hand touching the chin of the main face? I feel like there is a suggestion to hide, or be silent, somehow. Curator: Absolutely, I feel that that theatrical touch that invites us to silence, but perhaps it invites us also to the process of concealing behind appearances. You could see Erte’s designs popping up in magazines like *Harper's Bazaar*. He shaped visual culture by imagining all that glamorous, slightly mysterious, allure. Editor: Thinking of Erte's background, the Russian Revolution certainly must have had an impact on his artistic sensibility and choice of refined images. Curator: Precisely! So much richness distilled into what seems like simple elegance. The Art Deco movement itself became this beacon of glamour. Editor: Indeed, Erte seems to capture how, sometimes, concealing can become another form of revealing—or how, behind a beautiful surface, there are hidden complexities. I now perceive that melancholic dimension a bit stronger. It makes one consider how historical trauma can get coded and transmitted through cultural symbols. Curator: That’s beautifully said! It seems "Three Faces" has whispered to both of us different facets of its enigmatic charm, as if they were different faces indeed! Editor: Leaving me to muse about beauty and memory—quite a lovely parting thought.