Untitled (Dancers or Acrobats)
Beatrice Wood
American, 1893–1998
1917
A bold letterpress design by Beatrice Wood that reduces an acrobat to an elegant, theatrical silhouette—its flattened shapes and high-contrast colors aim to convey movement and stage drama in a single decorative image.
At first glance you see two extreme red legs splayed like a wide arch against a deep black field while the pale torso and fan-like skirt form a stylized, almost mask-like head and costume, reading like a playful paper cutout on stage.
Dating from 1917, the work compresses late Art Nouveau theatricality into the emerging modernist graphic idiom—anticipating the economy of line, flat color, and bold silhouette that would shape 20th-century poster and typographic design.
Medium
Letterpress
Dimensions
10 3/4 × 8 1/4" (27.3 × 21 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Merrill C. Berman Collection. Acquired through the generosity of Alice and Tom Tisch, Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, David Booth, Marlene Hess and James D. Zirin, Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis, Jack Shear, the Patricia Bonfield Endowed Acquisition Fund for the Design Collection, Daniel and Jane Och, The Orentreich Family Foundation, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, The Modern Women's Fund; and by exchange: Gift of Jean Dubuffet in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Colin, The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection, and the Richard S. Zeisler Bequest
Accession
714.2018
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
