Hail and farewell 1898

Editor: So, here we have Aubrey Beardsley's "Hail and Farewell" from 1898. It’s a pen and ink drawing, mostly stark black lines on white paper. I find the figure rather… detached? I am not quite sure what is happening in the picture. How do you read it? Curator: Detached, yes, and yet throbbing with a subtle tension! Beardsley was a master of insinuation, don't you think? The title itself, “Ave Atque Vale,” a Latin farewell, hints at departure and loss. It’s borrowed from a poem by Catullus, often used to commemorate the dead. The androgynous figure, with their elongated arm raised, is both welcoming and bidding adieu. Does this dichotomy ring true for you? Editor: It does, actually! The gesture feels strangely… incomplete. And that intense black cloak contrasts dramatically with the pallid skin. What do you make of that? Curator: Exactly! Beardsley often used contrasting blacks and whites to create dramatic and emotionally charged images. This starkness, typical of the Art Nouveau aesthetic, underscores a kind of aestheticized morbidity that haunted much of Beardsley’s work. Do you feel this work invites one into a symbolic realm, a kind of personal allegory, that only whispers its secrets? Editor: Definitely! The more I look, the more it suggests this liminal space between hello and goodbye. Perhaps it is fitting that Beardsley produced this piece near the end of his short life. Curator: Absolutely. This wasn't just art, it was Beardsley living on the edge of expression, using beauty to face mortality. Quite the balancing act, don't you think? Editor: Yes. I find myself looking at Beardsley in a different way.