Life — January 25, 1923 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page satirizes modern art movements, particularly Impressionism, through the subtitle "Painful Impressions of Impressionism (Following an Afternoon at the Exhibition of the New Society of Artists)." The cartoons mock contemporary artistic styles and social types. Notable pieces include: - **"The Flea"** and **"More off than on"** by Gaston Lachaise—crude figure drawings mocking simplified modernist forms - **"Moron than off"** by Guy Pène du Bois—caricaturing fashionable society - Works by Gertrude Whitney and George Luks representing established artists The page ridicules avant-garde Impressionist exhibitions as incomprehensible or absurd, reflecting early 20th-century American skepticism toward modernist art. The exaggerated, distorted figures and crude execution parody what satirists viewed as pretentious or nonsensical artistic innovation.