Sunday, May 24, 2009

Homage to Mucha

I recently got out Seth's hard drive again, and perused the files in it for pictures I either hadn't seen, or at least hadn't downloaded to my computer. This one was among them. I only have the colored image; he doesn't seem to have saved the original b/w one. That probably means that he sold it some time ago.
He liked the work of Alphonse Mucha--something I have mentioned before--regardless of the fact that Mucha's work has a sameness that Seth strove against all throughout his career. Everything Mucha did was pretty and elegant, in that Art Nouveau style of curving lines and floral elements. But his work is lush and gorgeous, and Seth loved balance, beauty, and line.
So this is his homage to Mucha. There are a couple of other pictures he did of women in that sort of languid pose, surrounded by curving lines that owe something to Mucha, but this one was saved under his name.
Though it was consciously done "in the style of", Seth never intended it to be mistaken for work by the Art Nouveau master. His woman is not a 19th century female, more of a Sci-fi person, I would say, maybe someone from Seth's Nimbus world. She's too lean for 19th century tastes, for one thing, and her clothing and slightly forward-leaning pose are those of a woman in control, not of a woman accustomed to others in charge of her life. The elements that surround her are also Sethy: a medallion behind her with a pattern of artichokes; and those green and yellow things on the right look like plants from another planet. The round thing she holds in her hand looks like something from Willworld.

1 comment:

j_ay said...

Wow! What a nice find!
Yeah, I would love to see this in B&W...maybe the lucky owner will appear some time...