High Style represents the apotheosis of the Cincinnati Art Museum

     The curatorial and design staff of the Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM) has historically put on special exhibits that are the equal of those at institutions with bigger names or in bigger cities.  High Style: Twentieth-Century Masterworks from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection is the latest case in point.  As the curators point out, there are a number of similarities between the Brooklyn Museum’s approach to clothing and that of the CAM. Where CAM has it over other museums (and I am thinking of Indianapolis) is in the physical staging—sets, props, and lighting—of a special exhibit.  Each exhibit is a unique production and they’re invariably gorgeous, witty, and become artworks in themselves.  They’re on a par with the Metropolitan Museum of Art so this makes complete sense for this to be here because Brooklyn’s clothing collection is now housed at the Met.  

Worth Designs

     The exhibit begins in the late 19th century with Jean Philippe Worth (1856 – 1926), who was the first couturier to market his haute couture – finest sewing – to the rich in Paris.  What may have seemed like an eccentric affectation was the first step in turning a traditional medium into a new artistic expression. 

The 20s

Many of the great European names of the 1920s and 1930s are represented with iconic pieces such as Jeanne Lanvin, J. Suzanne Talbot, Coco Chanel, and Jean Patou.  

Schiaparelli's Day Dress

     The next generation of European big names from the 1940s and 1950s show up in works by Spaniard Cristobal Balenciaga, Frenchman Hubert de Givenchy and, of course, Christian Dior.  My favorite from this group, however, was Italian-Frenchwoman Elsa Schiaparelli’s prominently and fully back zippered day dress.  It could walk runways around the world right now.  

Arpad's Shoe Design

     Where things get interesting is in its examination of two overlooked accessory designers.  Steven Arpad’s wild, one-of-a-kind shoes that are both high heeled and platform heeled were built in the 1930s, but they look like something a

Sally Victor's Millinery Works

Medieval queen or a disco diva could have worn.  Then there’s American milliner Sally Victor, whose stunningly elegant hats defined their era (1930s through the 1960s).  As Elaine Stritch’s Joanne sang in Company (1970), “Does anyone still wear a hat?” and that may have been the reason behind Victor’s unfairly faded renown.

Maxwell's
Sportswear

     Though historically the focus has been on Europe, Americans created their own spotlight in the 1940s and 1950s with the emergence of sportswear.  It was mainly female designers such as Vera Maxwell, Carolyn Schnurer, and Claire McCardell who did this while working in a patriarchal industry more interested in commercial product than artistic vision.  Then everything stops in its track and an overlooked legend comes to life.

Charles James' Clover Leaf Ball Gown

     American Charles James (1906 – 1978) earned Dior’s greatest respect.  Where Dior was about impeccable cut like Armani, James was a precursor to Versace.  Dior was Neo-Classical in his formality, while James was Baroque in his cornucopia.  How heavy were these clothes?  Katharine said that they were no more restrictive than a girdle would have

Cecil Beaton's Vogue Photograph in James' Gowns

been.  The dresses momentarily stop a viewer’s breath and when critics talk about architecture in clothes, this could be the jumping off point. They seem to float and refer to 18th century Versailles and the 19th century bustle; one even has a bustier.  Neil’s photographs capture their look, but the garments have to be seen to be believed.  The CAM supplements the background information with excellent computerized graphics showing the construction of these garments.  I’ve only seen this done previously with time-lapse photography of skyscrapers being constructed.

Halston and Scaasi

     My Mom’s favorite dress was Halston’s 1975 caftan, which refers back to the 1920s.  Betsy was taken with Arnold Scaasi’s 1983 evening ensemble that looks like a flowerbed. 

Adrian's "The Tigress"

The final piece is movie designer Gilbert Adrian’s 1947 ‘The Tigress.’  It displays the timelessness of clothing because the pattern looks contemporary, but exists in its own era because the lines of the silhouette were influenced by, but are more relaxed than, Dior.  

     Where the CAM really takes off and where Cincinnatians and Northern Kentuckians need to travel to Eden Park is that except for a $4 parking charge, admission is FREE.  

High Style runs through January 24, 2016.

cincinnatiartmuseum.org

30 Americans at Detroit Institute of Arts

Very impressive and coming to Cincinnati

30 Americans Exhibit Featuring
MickaleneThomas and Kehinde Wiley

     We went to Detroit in a gloomy October because we wanted to visit the Detroit Institute of Arts to see 30 Americans.  It was also a way to preview a major exhibit that will travel to Cincinnati next year.  The Rubell family has put the collection together over the past four decades and it’s been exhibited at a couple of other museums over the past few years.  All the artists are black, but each displays an individual style and subject matter.  

Sleep by Kehinde Wiley

     All deserve attention and discussion.  I’ll focus on a few of them.  The pièce de resistance has to be anything by Kehinde Wiley and he’s well represented here by a smaller triptych as well as two other heroic pieces.  Sleep (acquired 2007) is 11 x 25 feet, both breathtaking and intriguing because of its almost completely smooth surface. Wiley’s portrayal of young black

Detail of Sleep

men in Flemish, Baroque, and Neo-Classical settings points up both the necessity for inclusion, but also a primary method to make the art crowd actually look.  It helps that they’re extraordinarily beautiful.

Detail of Portraits of Quanikah
by Mickalene Thomas

     Mickalene Thomas, a figurative painter I hadn’t encountered before, places women in somewhat confrontive positions referring to historic earlier works as well as head shot poses that are about identity and self-empowerment.  The flatness of the figures’ palettes (achieved with acrylic and enamel) is offset by wild fabric patterns on the clothing and furniture and the rhinestones she uses as a focal point.  

Camptown Ladies by Kara Walker

     Kara Walker, who works in enormous paper silhouettes of images based on 19th century photos, engravings, and even Br’er Rabbit stories, shocks me once I really take in what’s happening in her visual epics.  Sculptor Nick Cave presents

Soundsuit
by Nick Cave

contemporary mythic liminal figures that are playful, sexy, and somehow unsettling.  Having seen their work in other venues, I have to say that their presence in this exhibition broadened political and visual literary boundaries provocatively.  

Fast Eddie
by Barkley L. Hendricks

     I saw a couple of Barkley L. Hendricks’ realistic portraits back in college in the 1980s.  The works in this collection are from that period even though he has continued painting and teaching, but the effect felt like time freezing.  He’s a precursor to both Wiley and Thomas in presenting proud, naturalistically rendered male figures dressed and nude.  On the other hand, Jean-Michel Basquiat combined lettering with childlike imagery on heavily brush-stroked backgrounds; they’re almost like impasto.  Because of how the work was shown, I was able to come away with a new appreciation for his art, even though I don’t like it.  

A Visitor Contemplates
Duck, Duck, Noose by Gary Simmons

     I could go on about each of the artists because all of them provoke thought and intrigue.  Figurative painting may dominate, but there is also sculpture, video, and conceptual pieces that are symbolic or abstract.  The audio (and visual) tour was the first time I’ve seen perspectives on specific works by the curatorial staff, the artists discussing with board members in what looked to be a green room, and high school students of various ethnicities.  All three groups had intelligent, original viewpoints.  The book of the exhibition was worth it and I look forward to seeing it again closer to home.

A Gallery of Black American Artworks

     The rest of the museum was unexpected.  For one thing, it’s enormous – the size of the Chicago Art Institute or the Museum of Modern Art.  We spent four plus hours there and covered the exhibition and the second floor.  There’s a very strong emphasis on black American artists from the 18th century through the present, including Robert Colescott, one of the 30 Americans.  

The Atrium with Diego Rivera's Murals

     The justly celebrated crown jewel of the museum is Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry (1932 – 1933), twenty-seven fresco panels that surround an inner atrium.  They speak of factory workers and capitalist bosses, the developing airline industry and pre-Columbian agrarian culture.  It’s a place to stand and stare.  However, there was also a group dancing performance to celebrate the Day of the Dead.  It’s certainly a museum I would visit again.

dia.org

Cleveland Shows "The Garden in Modern Art: Monet to Matisse"

A range of styles and movements cover a seminal period in Western art

The Cleveland Museum of Art Atrium

     We hadn’t been to The Cleveland Museum of Art since 2006 when the addition was begun.  It’s added an enormous wing and a stupendous atrium, which had formerly been a large courtyard.  The blend of styles is seamless and it’s been a way to maintain Cleveland as a pre-eminent American art museum.  Both Sister Wendy and Robert Hughes visited Cleveland for their TV documentary series.  The Garden in Modern Art:  Monet to Matisse makes only one North American stop, which should be a major attraction for the museum.

Monet's 3-Panel Agapanthus

     The Garden in Modern Art begins with works from the 1860s and concludes in the 1920s, though there is a later Matisse from 1940 that comments on his (and the other artists’) earlier work.  The major Impressionists (Monet, Renoir, Pissaro, later Manet) and Post-Impressionists (Cézanne, Gauguin, Bonnard, who seemed like a neo-impressionist) are presented as well as other leading artists and art movements of that era.  There are 150 paintings and many of them are immediately recognizable.  The penultimate room features a collection of Monet’s water lilies that reminded me of L’Orangérie in Paris and our friend Cindy of a gallery in the Pittsburgh Museum of Art.   Although I had a sense that there’s Monet and then everyone else, there are surprising works by artists that aren’t usually included in wall calendars.

Louis Comfort Tiffany by Joaquin Sorolla

     I’d never seen Joaquin Sorolla’s work before; Cindy had, but only in books.  His portraits of his wife Clothilde and Louis Comfort Tiffany feature the sitters in gardens, but the palette features shades of white with pops of color emanating from the faces.  It’s in a naturalistic style, but suggests a fresher approach influenced by the Impressionists.  John Singer Sargent moved from a romantic naturalism to an overlay of impressionism and then to symbolism.  Henri Le Sidaner, one of Proust’s favorite artists, actually was a Symbolist and his outdoor winter scenes showing only white and gray vibrate with interior warmth.  There was also Santiago Rusiñol,

Santiago Rusiñol

one of the Els Quatre Gats, who utilized jewel tones and stark lighting to off set the subject matter.  His gardens represent the end of Spain’s era as a world power.

     The only drawback about this exhibition is that is ends the beginning of January.  It’s worth the trip to Cleveland.  The museum also features extensive collections of Asian art as well as 20th century American and European works.

Gray and Gold by john Rogers Cox

The Garden in Modern Art:  Monet to Matisse runs through January 5, 2016.

clevelandart.org/events/exhibitions/painting-modern-garden-monet-matisse

Dream Cars & Fashion in Indianapolis

One excellent show, another so-so 

L'Oeuf Électrique, 1942

     We found out about the Dream Cars exhibition at The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) in January.  The time is limited since it ends in late August, but it’s worth seeing because these are one-of-a-kind automobiles that were designed and built as prototypes between 1934 and now.  

2010 Porsche 918 Spyder Concept Car

They weren’t put into production, though the final model, which is a Porsche doesn’t look that much different from some of their current models.  It seems more like a synthesis between a Porsche and the Batmobile.

1959 Cadillac and 1955 Buick

     The Big Three U.S. automakers are represented from the 1950s; the Buick and Chrysler models display elements that were utilized in later commercial models, which is 

1935 Bugatti

fascinating.  The European designers actually seemed more ahead of their time and pulled off some astonishing work, especially the spectacular Voisin and Bugatti cars.  There’s a Ferrari from 1966 that has a bench front seat that seats three with a centrally located steering wheel and a current BMW with a body made of fabric so that it can be adjusted continually, rather than having to build yet another prototype from scratch in metal.

1936 Scarab

     There are also examples of independent designers’ work such as the Scarab, which was the precursor to the van, the Airstream trailer, or an SUV, but was built in 1936.  It had a woven interior ceiling, sort of akin to a picnic basket, as well as seating that could be adjusted and turned around the way seating used to be on Southwestern Airlines.

It’s worth the drive to see this show.

2001 BMW Gina Light Visionary Model

The 20s Represented by Soeurs and Lanvin

     The Cutting-Edge Fashion: Recent Acquisitions exhibition pales in comparison to similarly themed or sized shows that we’ve seen at the Cincinnati Art Museum.  Covering the 1920s to the present, it includes pieces by major designers (Dior, Vivienne Westwood, Issey Miyake) as well as from the U.S., Europe, and Japan.  The Franco Moschino designs towards the end were wild, witty, and actually wearable.

Wedding Dress
in Need of an Iron 

     There were some problems with the exhibition, beginning with the fact that most of the pieces needed to be steamed since they were wrinkled.  The clothes needed to be fitted to the mannequins.  In a couple of cases, there wasn’t a foundation built on the mannequins properly so they looked as if a child were wearing her mother’s clothes.  One of the Westwood dresses featured cut outs, yet the curator put in backing cloth that looked wadded up and completely ruined the effect of the dichotomy between cloth and skin.  

Christian LaCroix

     The last time we visited the IMA, the guards and one of the docents could not have been friendlier and well informed.  This time, we encountered guards that corrected us every time Neil, Sue or I pointed at something because we might set off an alarm or touch a piece.  We’ve been to museums before.  We know not to touch anything; we were merely pointing out details.  One guard was so overly eager and officious that we felt like we were being followed from gallery to gallery on different floors.  When Neil expressed this opinion, he was told, “There’s a pattern where we change locations every fifteen minutes.”  Neil didn’t believe him.  I thought he was an asshole.

However, IMA is still a wonderful museum and many of the staff members are enthusiastic and friendly.

Dream Cars runs through August 23, 2015.
Cutting-Edge Fashion runs through january 3, 2016.

imamuseum.org

U.S. independence & LEGO @ Kenwood

Tiny plastic bricks + 

American iconic buildings = Wow!

U.S. Capitol Building

     We’d planned to go walking at Kenwood Towne Centre and, just as we were parking, Neil said, “Be prepared for a surprise.”  We walked through to the upper level and there was the Lincoln Memorial in LEGO!  There were over a dozen scale monuments on the upper level and three on the lower 

Liberty Bell

level.  The toughest to create would have been the Liberty Bell, which uses no curved bricks at all and depicts the entire description and the spectacular Capitol Building.  Upon seeing this model, we overheard one gentleman say, “Oh wow, there’s the White House.”  It’s great that it was a teachable moment for him.  

The Fantasy Good Earth Mall

     Look closely and you can see the statues of Jefferson and Lincoln in their respective memorials.  There were also a number of fantasy scenes incorporating American landscapes (urban, rural, a variation of Mt. Rushmore) as well on the upper level.  These were created using the full range of bricks and pieces available either through the LEGO store at Kenwood or through clubs.  

The White House

     This free exhibition runs through July 19 and it’s only being seen in select cities.  About a decade ago, Kenwood Mall billed itself as the place “to expect the unexpected.”  It coincided with a beautiful display of gargantuan sand castles.  The LEGO independence exhibit exceeds even that one.

lego-americana-roadshow

The Total Look at the Cincinnati Art Museum

Recalling a wondrous moment 

in American wearable art

The Entrance

     The Cincinnati Art Museum leaps back to the ‘60s with The Total Look.  It focuses on the troika collaboration between clothing designer Rudy Gernreich, photographer William Caxton, and model Peggy Moffitt.  With great prescience, Moffitt kept the legal rights to the clothes she famously wore for Gernreich and they are the foundation for this exhibit.  Another featured colleague is Vidal Sassoon, whose

Georgia O’Keefe at The Indianapolis Museum of Art

An enlightening exhibition at an institution 

that’s a work of art inside and out

     Georgia O’Keeffe and the Southwestern Still Life at The Indianapolis Museum of Art runs through February 15 and it’s well worth the trip.  Consisting of about 80 examples of those artists that worked in Taos and northern New Mexico from right after World War I through the 1950s, the exhibition is very well curated.  Walking into the

Paris Night & Day: Masterworks of Photography from Atget to Man Rey…

to Neil.  Or so Eric says

     We wanted to see the Kehinde Wiley show at the Taft Museum of Art before it left.  It just so happened that there was a major exhibit of early 20th century photography in its premiere week there also.  Paris, during that time, has always been a fascination for me.  So much so that it was an influence

Cheech Marin, Chicanitas, and UW

The Latino/Hispanic tradition celebrated in Laramie

Cheech Marin

    The University of Wyoming Art Museum displayed Chicanitas:  Small Paintings from the Cheech Marin Collection (size doesn’t matter) this past fall.  Marin, famously half of Cheech and Chong, has pursued his passion for art after touring Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum and viewing Rembrandt’s monumental The Night Watch, then seeing Vermeer’s work

The Cincinnati Art Museum hosts 
some beautiful work through January

Irving Penn's Woman with Roses, 1950
A Recent Acquisition

     Neil and I thought, what the heck we haven’t been to the Cincinnati Art Museum for a while so why not go?  We suggested it to Paul over lunch and, since he was up for it and we promised we could cover the new exhibits in an hour, we were on our way.   There are three exhibits on display through

George Bellows and the American Experience

A broad overview of a major Ohio artist’s paintings 
and lithographs at the Columbus Museum of Art

Entrance to the Columbus Museum of Art

     George Bellows was born and raised in Columbus, though he made his name in New York after dropping out of OSU as a junior.  He’s most well known for his paintings of boxers from

Eternal Summer: The Art of Edward Henry Potthast at the CIncinnati Art Museum

      Pottast grew up in Cincinnati, becoming a charter student at the McMicken School of Design (now the Art Academy of Cincinnati) at age twelve.  This exhibition covers some of his 

A Magazine Cover Illustration

early works when he worked as a commercial lithographer, magazine illustrator, and landscape and portrait painter.  

Sewing Girl

Patti Smith and the Contemporary Arts Center

Inside the CAC

     Ten years ago the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) opened across from the Aronoff Center with a national splash.  It was one of Zaha Hadid’s first major constructed buildings.  Before that, she’d been more a theorist than a practitioner.  It was

"Behind the Seams" at the Cincinnati Art Museum

A focused, informative examination 
of preserving textiles as art

Dexter Examines the Textile Collection Storage

     Neil has privately wondered why the Cincinnati Art Museum doesn’t have more exhibitions dedicated to its enormous fashion collection.  Years ago, there were a number

Dior Wedding Ensemble
as Exhibited in Wedded Perfection:
Two centuries of Wedding Gowns in 2010