Plate V from "Fiat modes pereat ars" (Let There Be Fasion, Down with Art)

Plate V 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』V

Artist
ERNST, Max
エルンスト、マックス
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-002-05 

This is regarded as Leaf V in an eight-leaf portfolio. There is a floorboard in the lower right corner with a female doll standing on its rear end. On the left, a tie-wearing male doll appears to inhabit a different space enclosed by walls. Behind the female lies a huge cylinder, with its obscured outline indicated by dots. It looks like the female could rotate the cylinder if she reached up and turned its handle. In front of her on the left, a Greek column leans precariously as the male stretches his neck and raises one hand. He cannot reach the handle at the other end of the cylinder. If the female doll turned the handle, perhaps she would send the cylinder crashing on top of the man and the column. It seems possible to read into the image the relationship between old art that is dying out and a new, powerful force that cannot be stopped once it is set in motion.
(NAKAMURA Naoaki)

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