New Exhibition at the Gibbes Museum of Art Traces The Similarities Between Art and Fashion — From the 1770s to the 2020s
Giving a fresh jolt to the blending of fashion and art, the Gibbes Museum of Art has unveiled “Statement Pieces: Contemporary Fashion Design and the Gibbes Collection.”
The exhibition juxtaposes designer pieces alongside works of art from the Charleston, S.C. museum’s permanent collection. Running through April 27, “Statement Pieces” features paintings and other work from the 1770s to the 2020s. Fashion devotees will find creations by Alexander McQueen, Comme des Garçons, Molly Goddard, Dapper Dan, Gucci and Serena Gili, among others. The bounty of art on display includes some from Joan Mitchell, Romare Bearden, Jasper Johns, Barkley Hendricks, Gilbert Stuart, Sir Martin Archer Shee and Utagawa Hiroshige. There are also works by such Southern artists in the mix as Merton Daniel Simpson, Donté K. Hayes and Edward Rice.
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One of the more striking combinations is fashion designer Richard Quinn’s sequin embellished floral dress from his fall 2019 collection, with Childe Hassam’s 1920 painting, “April (The Green Gown).” The oil on canvas is believed to be a portrayal of Hassam’s mother in 1859 while she was pregnant with the artist. In sync with that, Quinn describes his fashions as being “designed with the most meaningful moments of our lives in mind, inextricably linked with time, place and memory.”
More amusing is one of Romare Bearden’s midcentury abstract paintings “Untitled (Green),” circa 1950s, which is set up with Serena Gili’s golden fiberglass skirt and cashmere beaded top. The artist’s oil, casein, and colored pencil on canvas, that has been cut and mounted on painted board, is seldom shown publicly. “Statement Pieces” will be the anchor of the 2025 Art Charleston, the city’s annual visual arts festival that will run from April 23 to 27.
The Gibbes Museum of Art’s holdings cover some history, since its art collection dates back 350 years. Founded in 1858 as the Carolina Art Collection, the arts and culture institution and is one of the oldest ones in the country.
The designer gems are from Barrett Barrera Projects’ fashion collection. The museum’s director of curatorial affairs Sara Arnold and Barrett Barrera Projects’ chief curator and vice president Kelly Peck cocurated the show.
The scenery and staging in the gallery was handled by Barrett Barrera Projects’ director Nic Cherry.
By spotlighting portraits of American and European masters from the 18th and 19th centuries, the idea is to show how those historical figures’ own style choices filter through to more recent designer creations. An 1804 Gilbert Stuart portrait of Charleston-born General John R. Fenwick (1780-1842) is exhibited alongside Alexander McQueen’s blue velvet embroidered coat with a tulle dress from fall 2008. More recent is the interplay between a 1972 Barkley Hendricks’ painting titled “Ms. Johnson (Estelle)” with Dapper Dan’s streetwear from his 2018 collaboration with Gucci. Purchased with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the oil and acrylic work on canvas is an example of Hendricks’ life-sized portraits of Black Americans.
Angela Mack, president and chief executive officer of the Gibbes Museum, noted in a statement how the museum was licking off the new season by “celebrating the many ways art and fashion are forever intertwined in our culture.”
Some of the art on view is also more of-the-moment like “They Combined Beauty” by Stephen L. Hayes Jr. That mixed-media work features a winged figure rising in the center, and the work is paired with an image of a black sheath dress with gold embroidered wings from Alexander McQueen’s spring 2008 collection. The found objects features in Hayes’ work is meant to convey the resilience and strength of the African American community through such symbols that reference the transatlantic slave passage to the fight for legal civil rights.
Patrons will also discover Pam Hogg’s “Black Dress #4” from the designer’s spring 2013 collection opposite the 1919 painting “Mrs. Asher D. Cohen“ by Martha Simkins. Hogg’s elaborate dress was part of her “Save Our Souls” collection, which highlighted the punk and London club scene aesthetic that is the London designer’s signature.
Interestingly, Simkins’ oil on canvas was created at a time when it was common for women to have their portraits painted, during periods of mourning.
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