Erté
Will be published approx. on 17. November 2026
Book
Hardback
144 pages
979-12-82128-22-3 (ISBN)
Description
The volume presents the figure of Erté, one of the emblematic personalities of Art Deco, who distilled the movement’s most distinctive stylistic and decorative elements into an exquisitely elegant visual language. Text in English and Italian.
The volume Erté accompanies the exhibition of the same name at the Labirinto della Masone and presents the figure of the artist Erté. Renowned for his extraordinary versatility, Erté designed theatrical sets and costumes, created jewelry, illustrated for world‑famous magazines, and worked as a fashion designer in Paris during the 1910s. More than fifty years after the first volume that Franco Maria Ricci dedicated to Erté, this new publication offers an extensive selection of the artist’s works, with particular emphasis on those from the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s. Texts by Valerio Terraroli, curator of the exhibition, and Alessandra Tiddia trace the production of an artist capable of capturing—always with taste and irony—the shifting fashions and their most dazzling, luxurious inventions, poised between modernity and exoticism. In these works, impossible elegances—bordering on the precious—and the sharp, feral allure of the femme fatale take shape, equally suited to the worlds of cinema and choreography.
Text in English and Italian
The volume Erté accompanies the exhibition of the same name at the Labirinto della Masone and presents the figure of the artist Erté. Renowned for his extraordinary versatility, Erté designed theatrical sets and costumes, created jewelry, illustrated for world‑famous magazines, and worked as a fashion designer in Paris during the 1910s. More than fifty years after the first volume that Franco Maria Ricci dedicated to Erté, this new publication offers an extensive selection of the artist’s works, with particular emphasis on those from the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s. Texts by Valerio Terraroli, curator of the exhibition, and Alessandra Tiddia trace the production of an artist capable of capturing—always with taste and irony—the shifting fashions and their most dazzling, luxurious inventions, poised between modernity and exoticism. In these works, impossible elegances—bordering on the precious—and the sharp, feral allure of the femme fatale take shape, equally suited to the worlds of cinema and choreography.
Text in English and Italian
More details
Persons
Valerio Terraroli is a full professor at the University of Verona. His research fields include the history of decorative arts in the first half of the twentieth century; the history of critical sources related to changing tastes and styles and to the relationship between decorative and fine arts; and the history of collecting decorative arts in the early twentieth century and their musealization. Alessandra Tiddia is an Italian art historian and curator, specializing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with a particular focus on art in Trentino and on sculpture. She works as curator and collections manager at MART in Rovereto, where she is involved in exhibitions and academic research on artists from the region and the period.
Content
Introduction Main Text List of the exhibition artworks