Plate III from "Fiat modes pereat ars" (Let There Be Fasion, Down with Art)
『生まれよファッション 滅びよ芸術』III
- Birth Year
- 1891
- Death Year
- 1976
- Date
- 1919
- Technique, Material, Format
- lithograph
- Dimension
- sheet: 45.5 x 33.0 cm
- Category
- Print by Foreign Artist
- Inventory Number
- 83-PRF-002-03
This work is regarded as Leaf III in an eight-leaf portfolio. It shows three dolls. In the upper right is a male figure whose bowler hat and torso are connected by a screw. Directly below him is a female figure with frizzy hair, a lightbulb-like head and short skirt. To her left is an armless male figure with frizzy hair emerging from a cleft in his head. Both their feet are rounded like a roly-poly toy. Ball-jointed legs or arms connect the three figures. The lower body of the man on the left and woman are aligned on an axis. Beside the woman is written: "bräutliche mattung" (bride’s tiredness) while above the man on the left is "Letzte kreaktion durch MODEspaltung" (the division of fashion leading to the ultimate creaction [a coined term combining "creation" and "action"]), and below that is “non plus umbra” (climax of darkness). Leaf III is considered to be the most erotic of the works in this portfolio.
(NAKAMURA Naoaki)