"Twenty years ago, after a long, brilliant career in fashion and theatre design that began in 1912, Erté turned to creating graphics. At first he did lithographs, but then he became fascinated by the artistic possibilities of serigraphs--silkscreen prints. Erté's creative demands on the print medium have required the development of new techniques in serigraph printing and other graphic methods, such as hot-stamping of metallic foils and embossing. He has not only extended these methods to their technical limits but has also stretched those limits to the point where new machines have had to be designed and adapted to meet his needs. 163 works reproduce in full color amply demonstrate both the continuity and the development of the artist's creativiy, with many pieces showing how he has employed innovative techniques to produce graphics of increasing visual power and excitement. Here, undiminished, are to be found, in the words of art historian Alastair Duncan, "the hallmarks of Erté's style--flamboyance, wit, fantasy, sensuality, and a pervading minute attention to detail"."--book jacket.
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