Salome on Settle, Aubrey Vincent Beardsley

Exhibition Label: "Inspired by Japan," Mar-2003, Cori Sherman (Copy for #15) Although Aubrey Beardsley worked solely in pen drawing, most of his designs were specifically created to be translated into the multiple print form. His ability to form extremely austere, beautifully organized compositions by minimal means of arabesques and contour outlines found extraordinary expression in the seventeen drawings he executed for Oscar Wilde’s play Salome (performed London and New York, 1894). The stark black-and-white images drew immediate attention to the sexual and social allusions in his work, which often provoked outraged response. Archive Label: The image of the femme fatale was popular among art nouveau artists. She could be found in mythology, such as the serpent haired Medusa, in real life through the actresses and dancers of the period, and in biblical characters such as Delilah, Judith, and Salome. Of these, Salome was the most infamous and popular. According to the biblical account, she requested the head of John the Baptist in return for a dance. The most influential depictions of Salome were Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations for the 1894 English edition of Salome, a play written by Oscar Wilde. The illustrations were early manifestations of a quintessentially art nouveau expression, and artists across the globe responded to the revolutionary images that were as decadent as the play itself. Wilde wrote the play with the intention that Sarah Bernhardt, herself a cultivated femme fatale, would fill the title role. The decadence of the entire enterprise proved to be too much for England, and the play was banned from the stage.