Inspired by Finance and Fashion: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation
Date: August 28, 2010 – December 5, 2010
Curated By: Billie Milam Weisman
Venue: Pepperdine University, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art
24255 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu, CA 90263
(310) 506-4851
Exhibited Artists:
Arman, Joon-Sung Bae, Martin Bigum, Willie Birch, Blake Boyd, Adriana Carvalho, Les Christensen, José de Guimarães, Lesley Dill, Ofill Echevarria, Eva & Adele, Carole Jeane Feuerman, Renate Göbel, Judith Golden, Red Grooms, Gustav Gurianov, Duane Hanson, David Hockney, Alex Katz, Roy Lichtenstein, Kathleen Loe, Srdjan Loncar, Violise Lunn, Florian Merkel, Arnold Mesches, Greg Miller, Mitsuko Miwa, Joel Morrison, Jennifer Nehrbass, Orlan, Todd Pavlisko, Chad Person, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mary-Ellen Powell, Melanie Pullen, Jessica Rath, Larry Rivers, Fernando Rodriguez, James Rosenquist, Rozeal, Thomas Ruff, Gina Ruggeri, Paul Rusconi, Christoph Schmidberger, Jonathan Seliger, Mark Sparks, Dan Tague, Nicole Tran Ba Vang, Victor Tsoi, Alison Van Pelt, Mark Wagner, Andy Warhol, Ben Weiner, John Westmark, Edward Wicklander, and Yoram Wolberger.
Inspired by Finance and Fashion: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation
The artists and works this exhibition, Inspired by Finance and Fashion: Selections from Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, explore themes that reveal the immense impact that socioeconomics has had on the art of the contemporary generation, as well as on our culture at large. This is especially important considering the current international financial crisis and the constant bombardment from the media on luxury, fashion and glamour. These mixed messages are felt across class and culture lines in today’s society. The artists presented in this exhibition explore the relationship between economics and consumer culture as they prove that we are all under the influence of finance and fashion.
Andy Warhol, the quintessential pop artist, redefined the role of the media and how it affects our view of money and luxury as highlighted in the recurring theme of the dollar sign in his works. His obsession with the American dollar as an object has become a prominent theme by artists in today’s era of the credit crunch. Srdjan Loncar’s works attends to our longstanding societal fixation by showing mass quantities of money in places defined by depression-era practices, such as hiding money in your mattress or in an unmarked suitcase. Three of Loncar’s sculptures allude to the relationship between money and art as he recalls Donald Judd’s industrially produced box sculptures. Loncar uses bundles of American currency in place of the cube, each amounting to $48,000,000, to comment upon the costly nature of contemporary art. Dan Tague similarly works with the image of the American Dollar, but instead he manipulates it in ways that the original printed words display new meanings that shed light on the American Dollar as a cultural symbol. Alternatively, Todd Pavlisko links the dollar sign to the fashion industry through his relief sculpture made entirely of black plastic price tag ties.
Some contemporary artists displayed in this exhibition explore the ever-growing bond between socioeconomics and fashion. While the relationship between material adornment and financial status has a long history, the associations we make between them are always changing, dictated by varying societal opinions on aspects of an individual, such as employment, education, and gender. While jeans were once the attire of blue collar workers, they can now be considered haute couture. An individual’s identity is represented through the implications of their wardrobe and hairstyle in works such as Michelangelo Pisteletto‘s hitchhiker who is defined by his jeans and long hair; Edward Wicklander’s depiction of Rock and Roll legend Little Richard who sports the height of 1950’s fashion and a gelled pompadour hairdo; Ben Weiner’s super-realistic rendering of sixteen feet of the hair gel that is so popular today; and Duane Hanson’s sculptures of the respectable William and Mary Weisman in post-depression upper-class apparel. Many artists use the depiction of shoes to examine the relationship between fashion and identity, because shoes though functional in essence, come in a variety of styles that classify individuals by gender, profession, social and financial status, and even personality. From the authoritative male shoes of Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, Arman, and Joel Morrison to the extravagant and feminine stilettos of Thomas Ruff, Nicole Tran Ba Vang, Mary Ellen Powell, Mark Sparks, and Violise Lunn, these shoes present the viewer with a specific mental image of the individual to which they belong. Lesley Dill and Adriana Carvalho use fashion as a tool to comment on gender differences using alternative materials to create dresses which symbolize how women protect themselves compared to men.
In some cases, artists question the media’s emphasis on fashion as identity. Eva and Adele, the male/female performance art duo from Berlin, for example, challenge gender-based fashion conventions by dressing themselves in identical outfits that combine elements from outrageous male and female gendered outfits. Many artists focus on society’s constant portrayal of fashion in excess as exemplified by Les Christensen’s wings made of 5,300 pairs of shoes, Gina Ruggeri’s pile of clothes, Jonathan Seliger’s Gucci shopping bag, Andy Warhol’s portraits of Marilyn Monroe, and Paul Rusconi’s photographic portrait of American fashion icon Tyra Banks. Artists such as Jennifer Nehrbass depicts the fashion trends of the young and beautiful, while Red Grooms captures the character of his subjects through their dress—whether extravagant personalities such as Mae West, or those just “hanging out” and playing pool at a neighborhood restaurant—with a humor and irony that documents their social class.
How fashion functions varies depending on culture, which is expressed through works such as Alison Van Pelt in her depiction of an American Indian, Willie Birch in his serene African flute player in tribal dress, and iona rozeal brown’s blending of hip-hop fashion and Japanese culture. Artists such as Yoram Wolberger critique the American trend of making artifacts of war and violence fashionable as illustrated in his toy Indian and toy soldier sculptures. This theme of the commercialization of the instruments of war is depicted in the helicopters of Chad Person and Kathleen Loe, the glorified Russian pilot in Gustav Gurianov’s work, and the excess of Confederate memorabilia in Larry Rivers’ painting of a dying soldier.
The works presented in Inspired by Finance and Fashion: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation exemplify the growing authority of economics on society as well as the individual. Their works help us understand, deconstruct, and critique the global obsession with consumer culture.