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 French.

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 precious 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 French