Masks 1930 - 1931

Curator: It's like they've wandered in from some sort of modernist fairytale. Editor: Indeed. What strikes me is the tension between the geometric forms and the inherent whimsy of their expressions. We’re looking at “Masks,” an etching by Tadeusz Makowski created between 1930 and 1931. The work offers us an interesting play on cubist principles applied to figuration. Curator: "Interesting" is a good word. There's a strange calmness too. Despite the somewhat rigid cubist rendering, the expressions on their faces feel warm, and accepting. Is it the hint of a smile? Or are those mask-like grins designed to hide something, maybe a profound anxiety about identity during those turbulent interwar years? Editor: That reading certainly aligns with Makowski's social commentary. He critiques societal roles through these mask-like figures. The uniformity implied by the cubist structure suggests a loss of individuality, a kind of societal pressure to conform. The masks they wear aren't disguises, but perhaps signifiers of assigned roles. Curator: Or, what if they’re choosing their masks? It’s interesting that they all look vaguely the same, almost interchangeable, but then each one has his own particular expression. It feels playful. Like they’re experimenting with identities. Editor: Well, there's something to that. But I also think that reading obscures the larger sociopolitical context of the time. This was a period of great upheaval, of economic depression and rising fascism. Masks as tools for survival, perhaps? Curator: Maybe. And you are correct about the larger context, of course, but in a sense, aren’t we always wearing masks? Choosing which selves we present to the world. This makes me consider not just those times, but what those masks say about today. Editor: Ultimately, it is a powerful work that resists easy interpretation. Curator: Leaving us to find our own masks, so to speak. Editor: Indeed, a fitting task in our age of evolving identities.