Exhibition | Appropriate Dress Required
Le Magasin des modes, 1787. Dessin : Claude-Louis Desrais ; gravure : A.-B. Duhamel. 23e cahier, pl. II. Maciet MOD/2/35 Paris: Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs.
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Opening at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs:
Appropriate Dress Required: When Clothing Causes a Scandal
Tenue Correcte Exigée: Quand le Vêtement Fait Scandale
Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1 December 2016 — 23 April 2017
Curated by Denis Bruna
The history of fashion is studded with a host of iconic inventions: rhinegraves, the robe volante, the robe chemise, the chemise à la grecque, women’s trousers, skirts for men, the female tuxedo, the miniskirt, the ‘baggy’ look, and jeans, to list only a few.
Although emblematic of the ephemerality of fashion, these garments all challenged the dress does of their era and were violently criticised and even banned when they first appeared. Because they were too short or too long, too tightfitting or too ample, too shameless or too covering, too feminine for a man, too masculine for a woman, these garments transgressed the established order. They were condemned for their form, which should neither deform the body nor accentuate its anatomy, the sexual identity of the garment and its wearer, and circumstances that dictated certain dress and forbade another.
With a selection of characteristic garments and fashion accessories, portraits, caricatures, advertisements, and a host of other objects, the exhibition explores this history of vestimentary liberties, and offences—highlighting dress codes and moral values from the 14th century to today, from the royal courts to the street and magazines.
New Book | A Golden Age of European Art
From Yale UP:
Edited by James Clifton and Melina Kervandjian with essays by Barbara Baert, Andrea Bayer, Anne Dunlop, Steven Ostrow, Lisa Pon, Martin Postle, and Arthur K. Wheelock, A Golden Age of European Art: Celebrating Fifty Years of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), 272 pages, ISBN: 978-0300207811, $65.
Marking the 50th anniversary of the acclaimed Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, this commemorative book presents masterpieces from the foundation’s collection. The works span more than 400 years, from the 16th through the early 20th century, and feature a range of media including paintings, prints, and printed books. After a comprehensive introduction to the foundation and its collection, essays by eight scholars present new scholarship on key works. The featured objects include an image of the Madonna and Child by the Florentine painter Giuliano Bugiardini; Richard Wilson’s iconic 18th-century composition The White Monk; printed materials in Venice that bridged Jewish and Christian cultures; and portraits by Paolo Veronese, Simon Vouet, and others. With more than 200 illustrations, this beautiful publication is a rich survey as well as a timely celebration of this exceptional collection.
James Clifton is director of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation and curator of Renaissance and Baroque painting at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
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