CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 7/23/2015

Modern Taste

Featured image is a detail from a design for a silver cigarette case by Jean Fouquet, circa 1925. It is reproduced from Modern Taste: Art Deco in Paris 1910-1935, published by Fondacion Juan March. Evelyne Possémé, chief curator of Art Nouveau and Art Deco jewelry at the Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris, quotes one critic's response to Fouquet's designs based on machine and automobile parts: "It gives me the shudders. Are women supposed to wear ball bearings on their arms? Really, I object [...] yes, machines are wonderful, powerful things, and that’s what I like about them; but I am not keen on seeing their insides displayed at inopportune moments. Pieces of jewelry that look like spare parts make for very crude symbols. We do not need fetishism. We are not commemorating the victory of the machine; we do not have to sport miniature engines. Messrs Fouquet and Templier really should look elsewhere for their inspiration."