GREAT WAVE

I'm always delighted to find a garment that depicts an actual artwork, because it embodies the relationship between art and clothing. The print on this vintage dress takes as its subject one of the most well-known Japanese prints, The Great Wave Off Kanagawa.

The work is part of the collection of prints entitled Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku Sanjuroku-kei), by Katsushika Hokusai.

Hokusai was a Japanese painter and printmaker of the Edo Period.

From Tokyo (then known as Edo), he used works like Thirty-Six Views reflect the importance of domestic travel within an isolated country as well as his own personal infatuation with the majestic Mount Fuji.

Hokusai was known by over 30 different names during his lifetime, many of which he changed to relate to a new departure in his work or artistic period in his life.

Before Hokusai, ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock) prints focused on portraiture and depictions of courtesans and actors, but Hokusai established nature and landscape as viable subjects.

Due to Japan's policy of isolation, Hokusai did not achieve overseas fame until after his death, but eventually influenced Art Nouveau and Impressionism.

I'm wearing a vintage 1970s dress from Bygones, L.A.M.B. shoes, a vintage leather clutch, and necklace from my Aunt.

[Hokusai images from blog.shopkoshka.com and wikipaintings.org.]

ART TO WEAR: Orange Hat.

Alex Katz, Orange Hat, 1990

I've recently been on the lookout for the perfect orange hat after coming across this stunning Alex Katz screenprint. I think this is it! Like Katz, I would pair it with bright contrasting cobalt blue.

Whistles Felt Trillby Hat, $87.30 at asos.

[Katz image from artbrokerage.com.]

MORRIS LOUIS

When I came across this dress earlier this season, I immediately recognized its affinity to Color Field painting.

Morris Louis (1912-1962) was the key proponent of the Washington Color School movement, a branch of mid-century Abstract Expressionism.

After experiencing the work of Helen Frankenthaler in New York, Louis embarked on his own exploration of color field painting in Washington, DC.

Louis, along with Kenneth Noland and others, established a school of painting which championed the broad expanse of color achieved by pouring thinned paint onto an unprimed canvas. [View my Noland post here.]

Louis worked with Magna paint, an oil-based acrylic, which was specially developed for him by paintmaker colleagues.

The work of the Washington Color School is characterized by all-over composition, and broad fields of transparent, dripped, organically-spreading paint.

The group of works shown here cover all or most of the canvas, in contrast with his well-known Unfurleds, which simplified what it meant for a painting to be complete.

The color veils of Louis's work speak to the underlying spirituality of painting as a process, and remove the hand of the painter from act of painting.

I'm wearing a silk dress by Presley Skye, vintage leather boots, and self-made earrings.

[Louis images from picasaweb.google.com, abstract-art.com, kimmco.typepad.com, and nycmagnet.wordpress.com, respectively.]

ART TO WEAR: John Baldessari.

I've long been a fan of Ruthie Davis's outrageous shoe designs (I'm wearing them in this post), and I've repeatedly noticed their similarities to the grapic work of contemporary artist John Baldessari.

Visit the Ruthie Davis website to view other styles.

[Baldessari image from synapticstimuli.com, and Davis image from fashion-hole.blogspot.com.]

ARTHUR DOVE

Damp, early fall afternoons on the shore call to mind the abstract work of American artist Arthur Dove.

Dove (1880-1946) is frequently considered to be the first American abstract painter, who began his artistic career as an illustrator for Harper's Magazine and The Saturday Evening Post.

Dove believed that his artwork's main component should be spiritual, and was inspired by landscape and life as a farmer and fisherman. Dove referred to his artistic style as extraction; that is, he aimed to isolate the essential aspects from a scene.

Upon returning from a period of living abroad in Europe, Dove became acquainted with photographer and art gallerist extraordinaire, Alfred Stieglitz, who is credited with commercializing Dove's art career.

Dove received his first one-man show at Stieglitz's legendary 291 gallery in 1912, which was the first exhibit of abstract art by an American artist.

Duncan Phillips, founder of the Phillips Collection, became acquainted with Dove's work through his exhibitions at 291 and later, Intimate Gallery and An American Place. Dove's work helped Phillips to realize the process behind abstraction, and he became Dove's most prominent collector. The majority of Dove's oeuvre is now housed by the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.

"We cannot express the light in nature because we have not the sun. We can only express the light we have in ourselves." --Arthur Dove

I'm wearing an Elizabeth & James caftan and French Connection necklace.

[Dove images from brooklynmuseum.org, picasaweb.google.com, metmuseum.org, angellier.biblio.univ-lille3.fr, and metmuseum.org, respectively.]

ART TO WEAR: Kippenberger.

Martin Kippenberger, Ohne Titel (Untitled), 1996

I had to laugh at the similarity between this tongue-in-cheek self-portrait by Martin Kippenberger and this lovely abstract dress from ASOS.

Kimono Dress with Drape, $36.59 at asos.com.

Garçon à la pipe

Pablo Picasso, Garçon à la pipe (Boy with a pipe), 1905

Garçon à la pipe is one of Picasso's most well-known Rose Period paintings, both due to its art historical importance as well as its art market presence. (See my previous Rose Period post here.)

The subject of the painting is intriguing for its relatively obscure subject matter and unknown model. The interplay of masculine and feminine elements suggests a mythological character and it was proposed* that Picasso was inspired by Paul Verlaine's Crimen Amoris.

Now, the most gorgeous of all these angels

Was sixteen under his crown of flowers.

Arms folded on necklaces and fringes,

He's dreaming, eye filled with flames and cries.

The painting originally sold in 1950 for $30,000. When it appeared at auction again in 2005, it set the record for the most expensive painting ever sold, reaching $104,168,000. This record has since been replaced by Jackson Pollock's No. 5 from 1948, but Garçon à la pipe remains a cultural and commercial icon.

I'm wearing PRPS jeans, a Ralph Lauren chambray shirt, vintage jewelry, and a self-made flower crown. My dad made the wooden pipe.

[Picasso image from theartofjesse.blogspot.com and Verlaine translation from http://membres.multimania.fr/hiyami/kindred/crimen.htm.

*by Picasso biographer John Richardson.]