Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now

Philadelphia Museum of Art

October 16, 2018–March 3, 2019

Reviewed by Ed Voves

If you ask art lovers about the term haute couture, most would likely resort to a list of familiar adjectives to set the visual tone of their reply. Stylish, elegant, classy, exquisite, sensual, hip, sassy, glamorous, etc., etc. Describing "fashion" is easier than achieving a satisfactory definition. 

All of the above "superlatives" are applicable to to the Philadelphia Museum of Art's just-opened exhibition. Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now is a superb exhibit, a feast for eye and mind. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2018)  View of the entrance to the Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

There is an element of irony to the term haute couture, certainly relating to its second word. To American ears at least, couture denotes Old World sophistication. The basic meaning is quite mundane, a very "work-a-day" French word.

Couture means sewing.  

To be exact, a French haute couture garment is a unique, hand-fitted dress. However, the incredible amount of work involved in a high fashion "ready made" garment makes the distinction less meaningful than one would think. 

High fashion sewing, in either form, entails a great deal of meticulous work: creating patterns, handling fabrics, cutting, stitching, fitting and all the other delicate tasks involved in turning a fashion designer's concepts into reality. It is this "sewing" which makes these dresses "works" of art. 

In the case of the New Look of 1947, Christian Dior and his dedicated staff helped reawaken a sense of beauty in a war-ravaged world. Other designers, stressing femininity and romanticism, followed suit. Fashion tastes have certainly changed since then and the Sexual Revolution has challenged some of our conceptions of beauty. Yet, when we look to the models coming down the runways, we still expect to see beautiful people and beautiful clothing and our expectations are usually met.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Kristina Haugland, curator of Fabulous Fashion

Kristina Haugland is the Le Vine Associate Curator of Costume and Textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She organized Fabulous Fashion along thematic lines, much as a fashion house does when a new collection is introduced. Wisely, she begins with a comparison of two signature House of Dior ensembles.

The New Look began in 1947 with a striking two-piece dress (below, right) designed by Christian Dior. The trim waste and full skirt emphasized traditional feminine attributes. Made from pale pink silk and satin (which looks burnished gold in the exhibit), Dior's dress proclaimed that the wartime shortages of rich materials were a phenomenon of the past. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Fall/Winter Suit,1998, designed by John Galliano (left)

 Two-Piece Dress, Spring 1948, designed by Christian Dior  

According to the insightful exhibition text, Dior's New Look dress "redefined high fashion’s feminine ideal. To emphasize his new shape, the shirt has diagonal shoulder seams and stiffened tails that tuck in, while the skirt has a stiff lining and bands of topstitching." 

By comparison, the House of Dior Fall/Winter ensemble from 1998 stressed modern urban living, combining jaunty flair with a sense of luxury. A "ready-to-wear" outfit, it was created  from a wide range of materials, including dyed wool to resemble a fur collar. A lot of effort and skill went into this process, undercutting any negative comparisons about using "faux" versus organic components.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Tina Leser's Sea Fan Fantasy Evening Dress,1947

A surprising number of twentieth century fashion designers worked or were born in Philadelphia. Their creations are featured prominently in the exhibition. I was particularly impressed by the artistry of Tina Leser's hand-painted "underwater" design of large sea fans on a billowing blue blouse and skirt. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Detail of Tina Leser's Sea Fan Fantasy Evening Dress,1947

Made the same year as Dior's "New Look" dress, Leser's Sea Fan Fantasy shows how trends in fashion respond to wide-spread feelings or emotions, in this case a yearning for adventure and romance after the austerity and regimentation of the war years. 

              Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery View of Fabulous Fashion exhibit                  Ralph Rucci's 2001 Stingray Swan evening dress is at center

The full, flowing skirt continues to have a long life, outlasting the "conventional" 1950's by many years. Another Philadelphia-born designer, Ralph Rucci designed the Stingray Swan evening dress for the Chado 2001 spring/summer collection. Shown in striking midnight blue at center, this dress covers everything that the "mini" skirt left bare. Yet, it is one of the sexiest evening gowns of the Fabulous Fashion show.

Another sensational dress demonstrates that an eye for color and integrity of design can work with a short skirt or a long one. In 1952, Ellsworth Kelly utilized the hard-edged color blocks that had figured in his breakthrough painting the previous year, Colors for a Large Wall. The 1952 work was a set of panels made from brightly dyed cotton.

When he had completed his fabric art creation, Kelly had leftover material. With the help of designer, Anne Weber, he juxtaposed leftover strips of color on a simple, yet elegant sleeveless dress that reached down to the calves. Kelly declared his intention of of "getting color off the wall and having it walk around the room.” 

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery view showing Brazilian designer, Francisco Costa's reinterpretation of a 1952 dress based on artwork by Ellsworth Kelly

The original dress based on Kelly's design has not survived. In 2013, Brazilian designer, Francisco Costa, reinterpreted the Fifties' classic with a much shorter hem. The result is dazzling in its simplicity, making it one of the most remarkable works on view in Fabulous Fashion.

The 1950's has an undeserved reputation as a "gray decade." Over and over again, when you look at the dates of the works in the exhibition, many of the most colorful and innovative dresses are "Fifties" creations. I was very impressed by a sensual, body-hugging evening dress designed by another Philadelphia-born fashion artist. James Galanos created this sparkling tartan gown in 1957 from beads and sequins meticulously sewn on sheer silk crepe. There is not a hint of being "dated" with this truly classic evening dress.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Evening Dress,1957, designed by James Galanos

Kristina Haugland's thematic approach gives a powerful assist to art lovers like myself who are not especially knowledgeable about fashion. It also promotes a "dialog" among like-minded designers and their dresses. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2018)  Fashion designs (left to right) by:

 Norman Norell, Todd Oldham, Geoffrey Beene and Hubert de Givenchy

The array of "metallic" dresses actually works better as a group than would have been the case had each been singled-out for attention. Here four gifted designers - Norman Norell, Todd Oldham, Geoffrey Beene and Hubert de Givenchy - used unorthodox materials like metallized plastic sequins and rhinestones on silk to create fashion "statements" which are also beautiful, wearable dresses.

The Fabulous Fashion exhibition is anchored by a multi-tiered stage which brilliantly evokes the setting of fashion shows. Haugland and the exhibition set designers further enhance the "star quality" of the exhibit by the masterful synchronization of lights. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery views the lighting effects of the multi-tiered fashion display of the Fabulous Fashion exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

In the alternating glow of gold and blue light, we see these dresses in terms of daylight and evening shadow. Even more important, we are enabled to see these fashion creations as the designers envisioned them as they worked out the details of color and form on their drawing boards. Before there was a New Look there was an image in the mind's eye of Christian Dior, as for all great artists.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) "Photo-op" at Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now

The inspiration which empowers the world of fashion, the "haute" of haute couture, is brilliantly explored in this wonderful exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is one of the few American museums with a major costume and textile department. As a result, Haugland and her colleagues were able to mount this major reappraisal of twentieth century fashion exclusively with dresses, hats and accessories from their own museum's extensive collection. Not one item was loaned from another institution.

You don't have to be a fashionista to crave further exhibitions like Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now. And you don't have to be a prophet to make a prediction that we will be seeing many more such shows come down the "runway" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

***
Text and photos: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                                                                           
Introductory Image:
Gallery view of Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photo shows the "Color and Pattern" section of exhibition.
                                                                                                                   
Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery view of Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Digital film projection of fashion shows dating to the period covered by the exhibition.
                                                                                         
Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Kristina Haugland, curator of Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Fall/Winter Suit,1998, designed by John Galliano (left);

Two-Piece Dress, Spring 1948, designed by Christian Dior.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018)  Tina Leser's Sea Fan Fantasy Evening Dress, 1947, from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery View of Fabulous Fashion exhibit. Ralph Rucci's 2001 Stingray Swan evening dress is at center

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery View showing Brazilian designer Francisco Costa's reinterpretation of a 1952 dress, based on an artwork of Ellsworth Kelly. Dress was made by Calvin Klein Collection. Cotton/nylon/spandex double weave. Gift of the artist to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2015-5-1.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Evening Dress, 1957, designed by James Galanos (American, 1924–2016). Beads and sequins on sheer silk crepe. Philadelphia Museum of Art,  Gift of the designer, 1957-103-1

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery View of the Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibit, Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now. On view, left to right, are dresses designed by:  Norman Norell, Evening Dress, ca. 1967–70; Todd Oldham, “Mirror” Evening Dress, Fall 1992; Geoffrey Beene, “Mercury” Evening Dress, Fall/Winter 1994–95; Hubert de Givenchy, Evening Dress, Fall 1982.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery views the lighting effects of the multi-tiered fashion display of the Fabulous Fashion exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) "Photo-op" at Philadelphia Museum of Art's Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now exhibition.

Embracing the Contemporary at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Embracing the Contemporary: The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Collection of Contemporary Art

The Philadelphia Museum of Art

June 28–September 5, 2016

Reviewed by Ed Voves

There was a moment during my visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art's exhibit, Embracing the Contemporary, when the opposite  of the title words occurred. The art "embraced" me.

Embracing the Contemporary; the  Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Collection presents masterpieces of art created during the last fifty years. The collectors are a dynamic husband-wife team who have promised their collection to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Katherine and Keith Sachs at the Embracing the Contemporary Exhibit

It was neither this commendable generosity nor their appreciation of contemporary art that made such an impression. Rather, it was a sense of the living reality of art - art pulsing with life, ideas, awareness - that struck me as I examined works by Brice Marden, Jasper Johns and Ellsworth Kelly.

Keith and Katherine Sachs did not merely collect art that is representative of the present age. Many of the works in their exhibit strike to the most primal levels of creativity. I might have been looking at a  blackened ceramic Nagada vase from Egypt, c. 3500 BC, or the 1966 painting by Ellsworth Kelly, Black Red Orange. 

Ellsworth Kelly, Black Red Orange, 1966

In art, there really is no timeline, no yesterday, today or tomorrow. That is the powerful feeling that "embraced" me as I engaged with the art on display in Embracing the Contemporary.

Of all the paintings in Embracing the Contemporary, Brice Marden's Red Ground Letter exemplifies this ongoing effort to give today's art its voice. It also articulates the resonance of enduring, essential themes of art that speak across centuries and national boundaries.

Marden is famous for his 1984 mid-career shift. From color-drenched minimalism, Marden began experiments in a calligraphic style. 

Anne Lloyd, Gallery View of Brice Marden's Red Ground Letter, 2007-2010

Following  a visit to the “Masters of Japanese Calligraphy, 8th-19th Century” in New York City, Marden unsheathed strands of color and propelled them as cursive lines across the canvas. These powerful pronouncements may well be the visual language of the future. Yet, a sense of meaning - just beyond our grasp - is already apparent in these arching, scrawling lines. 

In his wonderful book, American Visions, the late Robert Hughes noted that Marden,"liked his paintings to be the size of a person - so that one would be induced, without quite being aware of it, to experience them as standing figures, other "presences" in the room ..."

Anne Lloyd, Photo of Boy with Frog, by Charles Ray, 2008

Embracing the Contemporary is filled with "other 'presences' in the room." The most obvious is the huge Boy with Frog, created by Charles Ray. This cast stainless steel and acrylic polyurethane statue measures eight feet in height. It evokes our modern sense of ancient marble sculpture. A monumental scale, which in antiquity would have been reserved for a Roman emperor, is applied to the sense of discovery of an adolescent boy.

Boy with Frog anchors the Embracing the Contemporary exhibit. But in some respects, the insistent "voices" of other works on view are nearly overwhelmed by this towering sculpture.

5 Postcards is an example of a work that could easily be overlooked is the ensemble of paintings. Fortunately, the artist, Jasper Johns, has plenty of name recognition. Johns is also a personal friend of Keith and Katherine Sachs, who collect his work in depth.

Jasper Johns, 5 Postcards, 2011

So there's not much of a chance that the superb examples of Johns' oeuvre in the Sachs' collection will be undervalued. But 5 Postcards is a work filled subtle insight. A quick glance, however admiring, just won't do it justice.

Johns used imagery, both familiar and ambiguous, to explore a situation from five different contexts. It is like interviewing five different people who have viewed the same incident from five different vantage points. Everyone involved will have seen the ghostly outlines of children and adults, the ladder, the towel and then come up with five different explanations. 

Anne Lloyd, Detail of 5 Postcards by Jasper Johns, 2011

The key to 5 Postcards are the Rubin vases displayed on each.The Rubin vase is a visual device created by Danish psychologist, Edgar Rubin, to test human perception.The outlines of the vases form inverted profiles of unidentified people. But just who are they? Isn't that Pablo Picasso's face on several of the Rubin vases or is it Uncle Harry? Your guess is as good as mine.

Modern art is not about certitude but questioning. Johns became famous - and in some circles notorious - with his variations on the theme of the American flag. The Stars and Stripes was an example of “things the mind already knows” Johns declared. The multiple variations of the flag depictions and the five postcard scenes affirm the importance of searching for meaning.  At the same time, the possibility of finding an answer, THE answer, is cast into doubt.

Keith and Katherine Sachs began collecting art in 1970 and among their first acquisitions were works from the immediate post-1945 era, by Franz Kline and Louise Bourgeois. The art of the Abstract Expressionist evidently held little appeal for the Sachs. Instead, they favored works by Ellsworth Kelly who was one of the painters who reacted against the idea that Abstract Expressionism was the definitive American art form.

Kelly, a World War II veteran, studied art in Europe after the war. Fascinated by Romanesque architecture, he hearkened back to the very roots of art. He reached deep within himself, as well, to create art that had an "object quality"  which needed no elaborate explanations. Harris quoted Kelly's terse commentary in American Visions:

"Instead of making a picture that was an interpretation of a thing seen, or a picture of an invented content, I found an object and " presented" it as itself alone."

Anne Lloyd, Galley View showing Ellsworth Kelly's Black Red Orange and Red Green Blue at the Embracing the Contemporary Exhibit

Standing in front of Kelly's Black Red Orange and Red Green Blue enabled me to to connect with the voice of art, directly and without story-line. I was very moved by Kelly's "Matissean ... joy of color" and  conscious of  the "presences" which Kelly's works  summon to the exhibit gallery.

Kelly, Johns and Marden are "gold-standard" artists. So too are other contemporary artists, Gerhard Richter and Howard Hodgkin, whose works are represented in depth in the exhibit. Keith and Kathy Sachs have reached out personally to many of these artists. Their astute selection of quality art is matched by an openness to the ideas and ideals of the artists.

In recent years, Keith and Katherine Sachs have widened the parameters of their collecting to include film and video. A rotating selection of the video portion of the Sachs Collection will  be presented in the exhibit, beginning with Static, Steve McQueen's helicopter-filmed meditation on the Statue of Liberty and the dangers posed to liberty by the national security apparatus of the post-9/11 world.

Diversity is the overarching hallmark of the Sachs collection. This is true, both in the works of art collected and the emotional responses these evoke. There is a real sense, however, of a unifying "presence" in the way that seemingly unrelated pieces of the Sachs collection are integrated. A wall-text of the exhibition provides insight on how Keith and Kathy Sachs envision their collection.

Keith and Kathy Sachs describe their collection as a symphony: “All the different elements work together to create a cohesive whole,” says Keith. In Kathy’s view, the differences among the individual artworks “open up a dialogue.”

Dan Flavin's light sculpture and Joel Shapiro bronze relate so beautifully together in the exhibit that one would have thought that these works were part of a joint commission. And yet they are utterly dissimilar in creative methods.

Anne Lloyd, Joel Shapiro's Untitled, 1989-90 (left) and Dan Flavin's Diagonal,1963

Flavin (1933-96) like Marden had a mid-career change of focus. He abandoned painting to create striking works using  fluorescent light tubes to create works that were both painterly and sculptural in effect. This example of Flavin's work was dedicated to the great art historian, Robert Rosenblum, whom Flavin admired.

Shapiro acknowledged both present and past in his untitled work. His bronze sculpture appears to be a component of an industrial superstructure. However, if you look closely, you will see that Shapiro is depicting beams of timber, the wood "grain" cleverly added as part of the casting process. Shapiro's sculpture evokes organic materials and hand-made human labor. Paired with the flaring light of Flavin's Diagonal, Shapiro's work registers a striking, unforgettable impact.

The brilliant juxtaposition of Flavin's and Shapiro's works is a testament to the outstanding curatorial skill of Carlos Basualdo, the curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He has worked closely with Keith and Katherine Sachs to develop their collection which they have long envisioned bequeathing to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

I could continue to pile-on praise and superlatives upon Embracing the Contemporary. Such accolades certainly would be well deserved.  However, a work small in size and easily passed-by will serve to conclude this review.

As I examined the works in Embracing the Contemporary, I was repeatedly touched on an intuitive level where theme, style, language, etc., did not operate - or need to. This level of appreciation begins in childhood. The astonishing miniature work by Charles LeDray, Toy Chest, speaks directly to this primal moment in human lives.

Anne Lloyd, Photo of Toy Chest, 2005–6, by Charles LeDray

LeDray is a hugely accomplished artist of a "small is beautiful world." Each toy in this tiny box is hand-crafted. A bewildering amount of materials were used - wood, wire, metal, gold‑plated chain, screws, epoxy resin, fabric, synthetic fur, leather, etc. etc. An enormous amount of patience and meticulous skill were devoted to this small wonder.

I had a similar wooden toy box made by my father many years ago. It too was stuffed with play things - not as well cared for as those in LeDray's box. Except for a couple of threadbare survivors, all the toys and my toy box are long gone. It's amazing how many of these vanished treasures I can recall, when I set my mind to it.

Anne Lloyd, Detail of Toy Chest by Charles LeDray, 2005-2006

Looking at LeDray's wondrous work of art, I was stuck by the thought that we begin to collect memories as children and continue to do so throughout our lives. This in turn leads to a point when we are moved to share our emotional riches with others.

At this moment, the "art instinct" takes tangible form.This is the genesis of the creative urge that finds all manner and ways of expression.

I suspect that the Keith and Katherine Sachs first approached art collecting from this level of caring and sharing - and still do.

***
Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved 

Images courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Anne Lloyd

Introductory Image:                                                                                                       Anne Lloyd, Detail of Red Ground Letter, 2007-2010, by Brice Marden. Oil on canvas, 6 × 8 feet (182.9 × 243.8 cm). Collection of Keith L. & Katherine Sachs. Digital photo, 2016 
                                                                                                                                
Anne Lloyd, Photo of Keith and Katherine Sachs at the Embracing the Contemporary Exhibit, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Digital Photo, 2016

Ellsworth Kelly (American, 1923-2015) Black Red Orange, 1966. Oil on canvas, two joined panels, Promised gift of Keith L. and Katherine Sachs. © Ellsworth Kelly, Courtesy of Matthew Marks Gallery

Anne Lloyd, Gallery View Showing Red Ground Letter, 2007-2010, by Brice Marden. Oil on canvas, 6 × 8 feet (182.9 × 243.8 cm). Collection of Keith L. and Katherine Sachs. Digital photo, 2016

Anne Lloyd, Photo of Boy with Frog, 2008, by Charles Ray. Cast stainless steel and acrylic polyurethane. Collection of Keith L. and Katherine Sachs. Digital photograph

Jasper Johns (American, born 1930) 5 Postcards, 2011. Oil and graphite on canvas, Encaustic on canvas,  Promised gift of Keith L. and Katherine Sachs. © Jasper Johns/Licensed by VAGA, New York, Courtesy of Matthew Marks Gallery

Anne Lloyd, Photo of 5 Postcards, (detail) 2011, by Jasper Johns. Oil and graphite on canvas,  Encaustic on canvas.  Collection of Keith L. and Katherine Sachs. Digital photograph, 2016

Anne Lloyd, Gallery view of the Embracing the Contemporary Exhibit, showing Elsworth Kelly's Black Red Orange and Red Green Blue, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Digital Photo, 2016

Anne Lloyd, Gallery view of the Embracing the Contemporary Exhibit, showing Dan Flavin's Diagonal of May 25,1963 (to Robert Rosenblum), Fluorescent light tube,1963, and Joel Shapiro's Untitled, Bronze, 1989-90. Collection of Keith L. and Katherine Sachs. Digital photograph, 2016

Anne Lloyd, Photo of Toy Chest, 2005–6, by Charles LeDray. Wood and mixed media. Collection of Keith L. and Katherine Sachs. Digital photograph, 2016

Anne Lloyd, Photo of Toy Chest,(detail) 2005–6, by Charles LeDray. Wood and mixed media. Collection of Keith L. and Katherine Sachs. Digital photograph, 2016