Blue China 1916

Editor: This is Sir Max Beerbohm's "Blue China," currently in the Tate Collection. The two figures are so striking, with their exaggerated features. What can you tell me about what's going on here? Curator: The caricature is classic Beerbohm, satirizing the aesthetic movement. The blue china represents the precious objects that dominated fashionable interiors, becoming symbols of status and, arguably, exclusion. The older man seems to be judging the younger man’s enthusiasm. Editor: So, you're saying it critiques the class dynamics embedded in art and taste? Curator: Precisely. Consider the power dynamics between the men; perhaps this work is about who gets to define good taste, and at whose expense. What do you make of that reading? Editor: That gives me a lot to think about, particularly how art can be weaponized as a tool of social division. Curator: Exactly, and it’s important to keep questioning those systems.