Gallery Edition – La collection Kelekian; Etoffes & tapis dOrient & de Venise Pl.019 by Jules Guiffrey – 44×58 Interior Architectural Study

Curatorial Narrative La Collection Kelekian; toffes & tapis d’Orient & de Venise Pl.019 by Jules Guiffrey, created in 1900, occupies a unique position within the art historical canon as an exemplary representation of Coptic Egyptian and German twelfth-century design styles. While not an original work, but rather a reworking, Guiffrey’s rendering of architectural motifs in monochromatic black-and-white tones bespeaks a deep fascination with the historicist impulse that characterized early twentieth-century decorative arts.The artist’s deployment of stark, unadorned brushstrokes if indeed one could characterize them as such serves to heighten the sense of atmospheric weight and spatial rhythm inherent in the design. When enlarged to 44×58 inches, Guiffrey’s toffes & tapis assume a commanding presence within a luxury interior environment, its chromatic structure governing the way light falls upon adjacent surfaces. The stark black-an