REVIEW
La Femme, la Bête et L’arc en Ciel (The Woman, the Beast and the Rainbow)
Review of the exhibit by Carlyle Burrows in the NY Herald Tribune for June 15, 1930
When one thinks of decorative painting one is apt to imagine something devoid of the vitality which is commonly associated with life. Aimée Seyfort, in her exhibition of painted decorations at the Roerich Museum, is not lifeless, nor does she overaccentuate the living aspects of her subject and thus, after all, defeat the purpose in view. We recall one of her canvases in the summer show at the Brooklyn Museum two years ago and it struck us as a most satisfactory blending of the decorative and the life spirit, which seems to make all painting more interesting. Her work is shown, in this instance, in company with three artists who have been invited to exhibit at the institution on Riverside Drive, and all in all, they make a decidedly interesting show.
Miss Seyfort, however, who has thirteen works, all painted during the last four years, stands out as an artist of talent who makes rather more than usual of her means. One is reminded, in looking at her strongly outlined and simply painted decorations, of various traditions, of the Orient, of the Near East and of Russia. In her “Persian Adolescent,” the softly and expressively modeled features contrast with a purely decorative handling of colorful costume and background, making a clear appealing impression just as it did two years ago, requiring nothing to spur the recollection. Here, too, there is an admirable companion piece, a portrait of a young Latin woman, whose calm, clearly drawn features are seen in semi-profile against a charmingly colorful drapery.
In her more ideal conceptions, this artist shows an even freer fancy, a true and expressive sense of the decorative. With them, as elsewhere, her style rests upon a method of painting flat, clearly outlined, colorful patterns, with harmonious neutral backgrounds. Those calmly beautiful drawings from early dynastic Egyptian tombs come to mind as the possible inspiration for the figue composition showing a semi-nude dancer. It is the romance of early Russian lore in the little huntsman and dog composition which is very vivid, too, in color. But her treatment of the more traditional gazelle theme, in the large panel so well suited to the purpose of an overmantel, is inspired only, one would think, by the inherent possibilities of the subject itself as a means of spirited decoration.
