Art - Goût - Beauté, Feuillets de l' élégance féminine, Mars 1929, No. 103, 9e Année, p. 27 1929

This is a page from ‘Art - Goût - Beauté’ by J. Dory and R. Drivon, a fashion magazine printed in March 1929. The colour palette is muted: pastel pinks, blues and beiges, anchored by a block of solid black. It reminds me of when I start a painting and I’m trying to find the ground, the key to the rest of the colours. The page feels airy, with blocks of text floating around little vignettes of women's fashion. The ink is applied flat, with a thin even consistency; a commercial aesthetic of clean lines and clear presentation. Yet, there's an interesting contrast between the mechanical process of printmaking and the organic forms of flowers, fur, and faces. My eye keeps getting drawn to the woman in the top left, with the turban. There’s something about the flat colour of the turban, the way it wraps the head like a helmet, that is both glamorous and slightly unnerving. It has some of the unsettling mystery of a Giorgio de Chirico painting. Art is a constant conversation.