Aesthetic Dress: The Scandal!

Gertrude Käsebier. The Picture Book. 1903. Photogravure. Henry Art Gallery, Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company, 97.249.

 

Today’s post is written by Kimberly Hereford, a PhD candidate in art history at the UW.

Just what is Aesthetic fashion and how was it different than everyday Victorian dress? In the day, Aesthetic dress was daring and existed outside the framework of etiquette and correct Victorian society. Though deemed scandalous and unfashionable by the public at large, initially a small group of avant-garde women dared to wear these gowns in public. 

On Thursday, May 23 I hope you will join me in the museum’s Reed Collection Study Center for “Off with the Corset!” to view a select group of objects from the Henry’s permanent collection and to discuss how Aesthetic dress differed from more conventional and acceptable woman fashion.

By looking at objects from the Henry Art Gallery’s permanent collection, we will explore what constituted “unfashionable” versus “ideal” Victorian standard of beauty, themes evident in the museum’s current exhibition Out [o] Fashion Photography: Embracing Beauty.

The Aesthetic dress movement grew out of the ideals of the Pre-Raphaelite art movement, which also influenced the Arts and Craft movement in England. “Truth to nature and beauty in all things,” was the guiding principle of Aestheticism, a Victorian art movement designed to counter the Industrial Revolution by rejecting conformity and materialism. The adherents to Aesthetic fashion believed that clothing should not distort the natural form of the female body, but rather should be in harmony with natural and individual characteristics with the wearer, and above all, allow ease of movement. The greatest outrage for the adherents to the Aesthetic movement was the tight lacing of the corset and the bulges caused with stiff bustles.

There are two excellent examples of Aesthetic dresses in the Henry’s collection, a hand-sewn blouse and a light blue silk dress from Liberty & Co. Each piece contains detailed smocking, a hallmark of Aesthetic fashion.  Rather than harsh aniline dyes, these dresses were often made using “natural” dyes and would have been worn without a petticoat or bustle. The total effect, would have seemed droopy, limp, and even “sloppy” – the antithesis of everyday fashionable attire

By 1884, a shift occurred and Aesthetic dresses could be procured by the everyday Victorian woman from Liberty & Co. in London, which was deemed the “chosen resort” for the followers of this movement. The Liberty silks and its distinctive floral motif became associated and trademarks of the Aesthetic dress and instantly recognizable.  

My talk on the 23^rd will also focus on these daring and fashion-forward women who were the first to cause a stir with their unusual style. Although Aesthetic dresses such as those in the Henry’s collection, would have been initially perceived as eccentric and “out of fashion,” we will also consider how, as the century progressed, this style not only became acceptable, but eventually influenced dress designers and continues to linger even today.

 

 

Give to the Henry today and be part of something BIG

Today’s GiveBIG event is an exciting way to support the Henry and become part of an extraordinary day of giving in our city.

When you make your online donation today through Seattle Foundation’s website, the Henry receives a portion of the $800,000 GiveBIG Stretch Pool, growing your gift through a prorated match. The more donations we receive, the greater the match from The Seattle Foundation.

Click the orange Donate Now button on the Henry’s Seattle Foundation page to make a big impact on the Henry’s contemporary art programs, including open studios with today’s artists, lectures and performances by international figures, and new work produced by creative leaders close to home and from around the world.

And, your gift makes you eligible to win a Golden Ticket – adding $1,000 to your donation, a round trip plane ticket from Alaska Airlines, and a $100 Starbucks gift card!

Please consider making a donation today. Your gift helps us to inspire audiences of all ages with the discovery, wonder, and surprise that contemporary art provides.

GiveBIG to the Henry today and share your commitment to the art, artists, and ideas of our time!

Thank you!

The Week Ahead @ the Henry

Here’s what’s happening this week at the Henry!

Wednesday, May 15th
12-12:30 - Faculty Focus Tour with UW Painting + Drawing Associate Professor Helen O’Toole.  O’Toole was born in the west of Ireland and moved to Chicago in 1987 to pursue an MFA in painting at the School of the Art Institute, Chicago. She has had solo exhibitions in Ireland, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Provincetown, and Seattle. She will guide visitors through Sean Scully: Passages/Impressions/Surfaces. 

Check out this blog post from Jeremy Buben’s le Dandysme about our May 1st Staff Spotlight Tour with Feney Perez.

All day — Give Big! How can you support the Henry and be part of a dynamic community event? Participate in The Seattle Foundation’s third annual GiveBIG community day of giving this Wednesday. We would greatly appreciate your gift to help us to continue to inspire audiences of all ages with the discovery, wonder, and surprise that contemporary art provides.

Thursday, May 16th
7-8 pm - Music of Today with Cuong Vu. Cuong Vu and his guest(s) will perform and discuss the avant-garde, free improvisation, and the experimentation/innovation he uses to create his forward-looking music.This performance is part of the UW’s ongoing centennial celebration of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

Friday, May 17th
10 am – 4 pm – Symposium: The Mechanics of Beauty.  UW’s History of Art Department will host a one-day symposium at the Henry that will explore the means, techniques, tools and strategies behind the production of art objects. The symposium will be held in conjunction with the Henry’s exhibition Out [o] Fashion Photography: Embracing Beauty.

6 -9 pm – The Brink Bash. Meet the six Brink Award finalists, enjoy a Hilliard’s beer, and take away an exclusive Brink Finalists publication. Tickets are available online for a suggested donation of $15 or at the door.

Film Screenings @ the Henry

In conjunction with our exhibition Out [o] Fashion Photography: Embracing Beauty, the Henry offers two film screenings this month to expand upon the ideas and concepts presented in the exhibition.

Paris is Burning: May 9th, 7-8:20 pm
Paris is Burning is a documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston that explores issues of race, class, and gender in the context of the New York City drag balls of the 1980s. This intimate and controversial film immerses the viewer in a subculture where contestants compete in categories that often skew and mimic hetero normative notions of race and gender. Regarding the film, philosopher Judith Butler questions whether, “parodying the dominant norms is enough to displace them…whether the denaturalization of gender cannot be the very vehicle for a reconsolidation of hegemonic norms.” The film will be introduced by Seattle filmmaker Tiffany Gannon.

We chose to screen this film as it explores the idea of seeing and being seen and also considers the notion of idealized beauty and “the gendered image,” a prominent theme explored in Out [o] Fashion. Until recently, Paris is Burning was, according to NPR, “difficult to see except at late-night art house showings and on vintage VHS, only a few years ago did some kind soul uploaded it to YouTube” (Read more of the NPR article here). You can now watch the film on Netflix, but this screening at the Henry will be via vintage VHS.

Cleopatra Jones: May 30th, 7-8:30pm
Cleopatra Jones is a Blaxploitation film starring Tamara Dobson which reflexively deals with themes of feminism, sexuality, race, and pop culture during a transitional time in the 1970’s, a social climate that witnessed the rise of both second-wave feminism and the Black Power movement. In this film, Dobson takes the role of the first black superheroine in the genre – a striking, fierce, and fashion-conscious spy who travels the world on a mission to cut off illicit supplies at their source. This screening will also feature an introduction and discussion with African American Film Studies scholar Sonnet Retman.

Cleopatra Jones creates a counter-narrative to earlier images of women, much like the photography of women photographers such as Gertrude Käsebier, Lisette Model, and Imogen Cunningham, all of whom are featured in Out [o] Fashion.

Henry Art Gallery Proudly Announces Six Finalists for the 2013 Brink Award

The Henry is delighted to announce the finalists for The Brink Award, an award for emerging artists age 35 and under in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia on the “brink” of a professional career. The Award provides financial support, increased exposure, and critical validation from an internationally recognized arts institution, with the aim of fostering the artistic and professional development of emerging artists in the region.

The 2013 finalists are:

Raymond Boisjoly, Vancouver, B.C.

Anne Fenton, Seattle, WA

Rob Halverson, Portland, OR

Sylvain Sailly, Vancouver, B.C.

Blair Saxon-Hill, Portland, OR

Nell Warren, Washougal, WA

For the 2013 award, 47 nominations were received from a group of art professionals across the Pacific Northwest. The 2013 Jury is comprised of Vancouver artist Althea Thauberger, Pacific Northwest College of Art MFA Program Chair Arnold Kemp, and Henry Deputy Director of Art and Education Luis Croquer. The jury completed the review of artist submissions in early May.

Jurors will conduct studio visits with the finalists late this spring. The winner will be announced on June 7, 2013.

The Brink Award was established with the generous support of longtime Henry benefactors and Seattle philanthropists John and Shari Behnke. In partnership with the Behnkes, the Henry will confer this biennial prize of $12,500 to one of the above artists. The recipient will also be given a solo exhibition at the Henry, a publication, and a work of his/her art will be acquired for the museum’s permanent collection.

The Brink is in its third biennial cycle. In 2009, the Brink was awarded to Isabelle Pauwels, Vancouver, B.C. and in 2011, to Andrew Dadson, also of Vancouver, B.C. The Brink Award complements the Henry’s role as a catalyst for the creation of new work, while simultaneously demonstrating the museum’s commitment to artists working in our region.

In honor of the six finalists, the Henry Contemporaries, in partnership with the Behnkes and the Henry, are hosting The Brink Bash on Friday, May 17 from 6-9 pm at Hilliard’s Beer Tap Room. The public is invited. Tickets are available for a suggested donation of $15 online or at the door.

 

 

Last Chance: Now Here Part II & The Dowsing

Now Here is Also Nowhere: Part II ends this Sunday, May 5th. This exhibition is the second part in a two-part meditation and non-linear account of how—in making artworks about ideas and intangible concepts— artists continually question and destabilize the nature of the art object. The artworks in Now Here is also Nowhere are ephemeral, immaterial, and embrace contingency; many of them are the result of orchestrated private and/or public actions. The works in the exhibition act as a reminder that the desire to pose questions and address issues related to mind, body and soul are central to artistic practice.Featured artists include: Jason Dodge, Marcel Duchamp, Paul Elliman,  Agnes Martin, Pablo Helguera, Robert Indiana, and NASA. This is your last chance to see it before it vanishes into nowhere.

Photo courtesy of Dan Bennett

Vanguard Seattle wrote a review about the exhibition when the show first opened:

“Now Here is Nowhere: Part 1” began a conversation about how we look at and qualify objects, including artwork. The second part of this builds on the concepts presented in the original (what is familiar, but largely intangible), but further delves into the fundamental power of media to convey what is intangible with what is familiar. Just as artists “continually question and destabilize the nature of the art object,” we as viewers investigate and excavate each piece for a deeper meaning—though perhaps the intent all along was to be indecipherable.”

Read the entire article here.

The Dowsing will close NEXT Sunday, May 12th. Using fashion as point of departure, Anna Telcs’ work explores the liminal space between form, fashion, presentation and performance. The works made for the Dowsing 2013 were presented and activated in the University of Washington’s Red Square through three performances shown in one day on March 22nd. Perhaps you caught that performance while walking through Red Square that day.

In an interview with Interview Magazine’s Ryann Donnelly, Telcs articulated that:

“The goal is to explore silhouette, color, and materiality of objects. Emotional resonance is the leading factor in retention and use of an item, so by placing the garments in the realm of the art object, they can be perceived as worthwhile.”

The Week Ahead @ the Henry

Here’s what’s happening this week at the Henry!

Wednesday, May 8th
12-12:30 pm – Student Led Tour: Join a Henry Student Exhibition Guide for a 30-minute tour. All tours meet in the museum lobby.

Thursday, May 9th
12:30-1:00 pm – Mindfulness Meditation: Mindful Awareness is the moment-by-moment process of actively and openly observing one’s physical, mental, and emotional experiences. Join us to recenter and relax during your busy workday.

Thursday, May 9th
7:00 pm – Paris is Burning Screening. This is a documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston that explores issues of race, class, and gender in the context of the New York City drag balls of the 1980s.  This intimate and controversial film immerses the viewer in a subculture where contestants compete in categories that often skew and mimic hetero normative notions of race and gender. This film explores the notion of idealized beauty and the gendered image also explored in Out [o] Fashion Photography: Embracing Beauty.

The Week Ahead @ the Henry

Here’s what’s happening this week at the Henry!

Wednesday, May 1st
12-12:30 pm - Staff Spotlight Tour – Join Feney Perez, our Museum Education Coordinator, as she leads you on a tour to celebrate public art on the UW campus and at the Henry  by looking at the work of James Luna, found in University of Washington’s new Kane Hall Collection to explore “Imagined Identity,” a theme prevalent in our current exhibition Out [o] Fashion Photography: Embracing Beauty.

Installation Image: Mark Woods. Out [o] Fashion Photography: Embracing Beauty.

 

Thursday, May 2nd
7-7:30 pm - First Thursday Guided Tours – Join a Henry Student Exhibition Guide for a 30-minute tour.

Sunday, May 5th
11:30 am -3:30 pm – Arty Party! – Join us here at the Henry for our first Arty Party. LOOK * LISTEN * EXPLORE * LAUGH. Caspar Babypants will perform two first-come, first-served sets at 11:30 and 12:30. Bring the whole family for a day of fun at the Henry. Doors open at 11 am.

The Henry Announces VIEWPOINTS

“The dress, its work on behalf of the body, is everything. Note how it elongates the leg, lengthens the arms. That those might in fact be arms, and not simply sleeves, slowly liquefying under the weight of fabric, congealing in bands, like poured, cold molasses? Well, try not to notice.”

-  Caroline Chung Simpson, excerpted from her VIEWPOINTS wall text

Image: Elizabeth Jameson. Yellow Droplet Dress. 2000. Charcoal and oil pastel on paper. Henry Art Gallery, gift of Aileen and Ben Krohn, 2003.9.

VIEWPOINTS highlights select works from our permanent collection and offers diverse perspectives of University of Washington faculty members. Multiple voices can help expand our understanding of a work of art, cast a new light on overlooked details, and open our minds to new ideas.

This first iteration of VIEWPOINTS features the drawings and performance documentation of Elizabeth Jameson. Born in Germany, raised in Japan, and currently living in Seattle, Jameson received a B.A. in art from Western Washington University and an M.F.A. in sculpture from Mills College. Since 1996, her work has been exhibited regularly in solo, group and juried exhibitions in the United States and has recently gained notice in Europe. In 1999, Jameson was artist-in-residence at the Society of Austrian Women Artists, in Vienna, Austria.

Jameson’s work is displayed alongside the voices of UW faculty Caroline Chung Simpson, Associate Professor, Humanities; Sarah Nash Gates, Executive Director of the School of Drama and Professor of Costume Design; and Jessica Burstein, Associate Professor, Department of English and Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies. Each faculty member contributed a short statement sharing her perspective about Jameson’s works.

Over time, VIEWPOINTS will present new combinations of artworks and voices, inspiring and provoking new dialogues and thoughts on works in our permanent collection. VIEWPOINTS featuring Elizabeth Jameson can be seen on the Henry’s mezzanine through June 16.

VIEWPOINTS: Elizabeth Jameson (installation view). 2013. Henry Art Gallery. Photo credit: R.J. Sanchez

 

 

The Week Ahead @ the Henry

Here’s what’s happening this week at the Henry!

Wednesday, April 24th
12-12:30 pm – Art Break Tour: Henry Exhibition Guides will encourage a lively discussion around a selection of objects in our exhibitions.

Thursday, April 25th
7-8 pm – Music of Today with Abby Aresty. Abby Aresty, a UW School of Music graduate student, investigates the role of breath in music through creative manipulations of a performer’s relationship to her own breath. This performance is part of the UW’s ongoing centennial celebration of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

Have you seen Sean Scully: Passages/Impressions/Surfaces yet?