La Loïe Fuller 1898

Curator: This lithograph from 1898, a poster created by Jules Chéret, features the celebrated dancer Loïe Fuller. Editor: It’s dynamic! The colors swirling around her suggest movement and an almost ethereal quality. It captures something really transformative about performance. Curator: Fuller was a sensation, not just for her dance but for her innovations in stage lighting and costume. The way Chéret captures her— enveloped in layers of fabric and light— speaks to this transformation. Notice how the fabric becomes almost like wings, transforming the dancer into something more. It draws from archetypal images of deities. Editor: Right, her manipulation of fabric was incredibly innovative; it almost obscures her body entirely. It asks us what we’re looking at. Is it about the dancer, or the spectacle? In an era increasingly obsessed with the female form, Fuller challenges the male gaze. She’s both there and not there, her identity shifting with the colours and light. Curator: Consider too that Chéret was known for his own innovations in printing – what became known as 'Chéret style,' these layered translucent colors that created vibrant and visually exciting advertisements. He translated that understanding of spectacle onto the form of Loïe Fuller. Editor: Absolutely. Thinking about the performance, the construction of identity, and its reflection of societal shifts--this work goes beyond mere advertisement. It reveals complex issues surrounding the commodification of performance, the role of women on stage, and art nouveau as an expression of feminine aesthetics. Curator: Seeing how Fuller is framed in these layers really enhances that symbolism—it feels so complete as a kind of visual language in itself. It reflects that sense of hope that was found through a fusion of nature, technology and culture in the early modern period. Editor: It’s powerful how much this single image can convey about the intersection of art, identity, and social progress. And how enduring the questions it provokes continue to be.