COLOUR IN HUMAN LIFE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 97, 27 April 1938, Page 12

COLOUR IN HUMAN LIFE.

Opinions of an Interior Decorator.

"Colours play a great part in human life—even more than we suspect," says Mtss Loui Borgia, of Hungary, an expert interior decorator who has arrived in Auckland. Miss Borgia has studied modern art, not only in her native land of Hungary, but also in Italy, France and India and she is enthusiastic in advocating colour. "Every human being is composed of different rays," she said, "and consequently can be harmonised only with certain colours. So it is important that consideration be given to the various dwellers in the home. The homemaker can do marvels with colours if she 1 knows herself and those about her and realises their reaction to colour harmonies." Miss Borgia, who has recently toured Australia, remarked that she had seen some fine|e£am pies of modern interiors in the Sydney homes. While admitting that there was a peculiar charm in old associations and ideas, she stressed the theory that modern art offers wider scope, more comfort and greater beauty than anything that the human race has yet conceived. Modern decoration, she said, had no definite regulation to any period. It was as singular as the age itself and did not need the support of othej- times. As yet modern art was only in the bud. but already it had shown a freedom and splendour that Avas really new. Moreover, she continued, modern furniture and furnishings cost less than their predecessors, purely because simplicity was the leading line.

New interiors, she said, were intensively simple and spacious and had perfect control of colour and lighting. There was in modern art a fuller appreciation of fabrics—curtains in rich folds, plainly hanging from the ceiling to 'he floor, giving magnificent height to the room. She also talked of the simple little homes, of the beauty to be found in cretonnes and poplins—of soft shaded nets for lovely bedrooms, and of tnc importance of colour to happiness.

Miss Borgia herself is a wonderful example of modern life and enthusiasm. Still in her early twenties she is a mistress of her art, four languages and the means of travel. She is a pretty example of what can be accomplished with artistic talent and unlimited ambition. Already she has worked with some of the greatest connoisseurs of modern decoration. In Ceylon she worked for Count de Mutiny, a Frenchman, whose reputation as an interior designer and decorator is well known to students of art. In India she had a commission to redecorate the salon of the Maharajah of .Todhpur.

As weTI as Interior decorating Miss Borgia is enthusiastic about music and dancing. Of course, this is natural. "If one were to ask a Hungarian whether he was fond of music," said Miss Borgia, "the answer would be a blank stare of wonder. To us," she explained, "the love of music is second nature for it is inseparable from our pleasures. With dancing it is the same. The arts of song and movement are not subjects to be laboriously learned. They are the national abilities that constitute the gaiety of nations."