Raoul Dufy

Raoul Dufy (designer) for Bianchini Férier (studio)

Pattern Sketch (une maquette)

circa 1918 (?)

     Coinciding with and no doubt owing to Raoul Dufy’s close collaborations with Paul Poiret and l’école Martine, each of whom produced sets of prints and designs in particularly bright, fauvist tones, the Lyon-based silk-manufacturing studio Bianchini Férier (founded in the late 1880s and run by Charles Bianchini) also struck close ties with contemporary Dufy. From this blossomed an energetic decade (roughly between the mid 1910s to the late 1920s) of design étiquette that beat proudly from the bosom of France, spurred by both Bianchini’s value of quality and concept and Dufy’s vision of colour, spawning as such creations as seen above. Purely by Dufy’s hand, this maquette resonates with the artist’s take on the character of nature: bold, fantastical and breathtakingly ludicrous. Every petal and stem has an individual pulse; the wet, whip-like strokes of gouache seem to shake with a craving for more colour and more power; and the dainty specks of white and black apparently skip from leaf to leaf, teasing the blood-red backdrop with incessant tickles. Dufy pointedly drew his designs with an intention to scrape away any seriousness associated with ‘high’ art, retaining all the same an aspect of instantly-felt beauty in such elements as colour-coordination, visual texture and seemingly uncontrollable contours. Arguably, each of these details requires an automatic, un-inhibited understanding of ‘self’ and of the immediate in order to experience fully and most truthfully, allowing one to revisit the thrill of Dufy’s pieces with recurring spurts of unchecked, wonderfully unfeigned excitement.

Michel Ludi

Michel Ludi

Résurrection

circa 2004 (?)

(iron, steel and feather)

     The minimalist undertone to Ludi’s work asks of one to observe an idea that presents itself in an exposed, even vulnerable, state. This does not imply, however, that the idea itself is easy to interpret, whether at first or indeed at all. Ludi chooses to inflict on the mind’s eye an image that is dually simple yet many-layered, tiered with possible explanations that may be as serious and contemplative as they may be quirky and seemingly far-fetched. The term ‘resurrection’ is one that certainly, if not automatically, plays with a religious theme, as well as that of the ever-revolving evolution of all elemental forms (from, for example, an air-borne seed to a mere concept that has yet to be thought of). Central to this sculpture is the human figure: upright, slightly elongated and with an armful of ‘feelers’ (for want of a better word) that emulate a fantastical cell of flailing tentacles, each stretched and branching outwards with a vigour that suggests a positive energy and a thirst for growth and change. To visually propose, as Ludi appears to, that humankind is as early in its developmental stages as are, for example, a seedling or an embryonic concept, is to simultaneously propose that the question of What is life? is likely pondered over too often. Finding a means to an end is usually never as satisfactory as it is imagined to be, and it is therefore in good sense that Ludi surrounds the human being (playfully belittling us) with the analogy of encircling endlessness - meaning that, in questioning what may be too great to understand causes one to inevitably bump back into oneself, again and again, before one realises that it may be best to just let go.

Minerva-Ray Sales, Co.

Minerva-Ray Sales, Co.

Fluted Catalin (form of Bakelite) Powder Box

circa 1930s

     The smooth swirlings of this box’s milky opaque orange pallor suggest that its initial resin was first heated, dyed and mixed with a slightly lighter-coloured version of phenol formaldehyde plastic, and then placed into a mould and pressurised with heat. This process, known as Catalin [casted ware], is generally deemed the more elegant of the two forms of innovative resin design that climaxed in the early twentieth century, originating in North America. The alternative process is known simply as Bakelite [moulded ware] and is often the term more frequently used to describe these first creations of synthetic plastic, owing to the fact that both processes follow similar mixtures and compositions.

     Considered as the more sturdy and reliable of the two techniques, Bakelite ware certainly offers a less affected (meaning less susceptible to scratches or fractures) demeanour in the face of rougher handling - the reason for which Art Déco products such as telephones, game sets (billiard balls or chess pieces, for example), radios and even wristwatches soon found themselves marketed as avant-garde works of ‘Bakelite’. To the attentive eye, however, there is a flattering difference between the two resin makes, making it appropriate to therefore compliment Minerva-Ray Sales, Co. for its subtly-sophisticated design of this powder box. Its cast-ware make beautifully imbues its form with a gloss and lucidity that visually enunciates its purpose to contain something charming but ephemeral, while its elongating flutings act to fortify its call to be handled delicately and cautiously by only the most patient of fingers.