ART IN TERMS OF THE MODERN WOMAN

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18805, 6 July 1929, Page 23 (Supplement)

ART IN TERMS OF THE MODERN WOMAN

(Continued from page 19.) A tractor in motion, a bombing’plane, a speed boat, or a twin-six supercharger may represent the mood and impulses of our century. Drink, music, or the nakedness of our bones, our shorn heads and expressions, our activities (many of them jumbled and meaningless), our passionate angularity, our greed of sensation, our tolerance, eagerness, and impatience—all the other mental qualities reflected in the clothes we wear, and the manners we affect—all these facets of an overcrowded existence may find place in the art of to-day, rather than an exact representation of two eyes, one nose, and other completely meaningless features. The face of the modern woman means little more than a mask, and what is the use of painting a mask? 1929 is, on the surface and in appearance, an expression of mass determination. Every modern woman looks exactly like her sister, cousin, friend, rival, and worst enemy \

We wear the same suit, hats and shoes (the less of them the better); we have the same make-up, the same handkerchiefs like young tablecloths, the same expressions and the same manners. What is there in our appearance to hand down to posterity, since we, like the machines which transport us, feed us, serve and amuse us, are the result of mass production? The art with which we surround ourselves, the empty spaces, the specimen jade, or the single recondite drawing show that we need a specialised background. Our individuality would be stifled by the ordinary room crowded with inherited chaos; but I doubt if it would have mattered to Madame de Maintenon, Lucrezia Borgia, or Isabella the Catholic. Their personalities were too definite to be affected by their sur roundings. One imagines that these epic females would have been just as forcible were they functioning in a railway waitingroom or a third floor backj It would seem, therefore, that the modern woman depends on the right background as much as modern art relies on original treatment. Both are still feeling their way, but both are attempting to express something beyond the established conventions.