Hapers Bazar Cover 

Editor: Here we have Erte's "Harper's Bazar Cover". It's an illustration, I think, from January 1923, so very Art Deco. I’m struck by the flat planes of color and how the figure seems to float amidst all those carefully placed dots and swirling lines. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see the overt influence of industrialized printing processes right away. Note the absolute flattening of space, a direct consequence of the limited color palette readily available for mass production. Editor: You mean the printmaking shaped the aesthetic choices? Curator: Precisely. Think about the context: magazines aimed at a burgeoning consumer culture. The imagery isn't about representing reality, it's about selling a lifestyle. Notice how Erte employs geometric patterns both to decorate and define space. This is not accidental. The artist makes a virtue of the technical constraints. The dots are not just decorative but also function as halftone dots hinting at a photomechanical reproductive process, making visible the work involved in its dissemination. Editor: So, Erte is acknowledging the means of production within the artwork itself? Highlighting the labor? Curator: Exactly! Consider the title, “Harper’s Bazaar Cover,” openly declaring the purpose of creating a desirable mass produced image! Erte elevates the function of magazine illustration. It moves from purely commercial enterprise to sophisticated critique on consumer society, creating desirability and revealing the process of image creation, thus encouraging us to consider what work went into making the consumer’s desire. Editor: That's fascinating, I hadn't thought about it that way. It shifts my perception entirely, it is more than a pretty image, it's revealing how consumerism works. Curator: Yes, and hopefully demonstrates that “low” art has as much material, intellectual and cultural importance as what has been traditionally termed as “high” art.