T-Shirts, Togas, or Au Naturel? : The Problem With Clothing In Art

It has been said that the foot is nobler than the shoe, but is the sandle nobler than the flipflop? In renaissance Italy before planes, trains, and automobiles biblical characters were represented wearing fashions from their current time. This is presumably because it never occurred to them that people would have ever dressed any differently. In Rembrandt's dark, jewel-studded biblical narratives he seems to have invented his own fanciful interpretation of Jewish clothing. But why don't these inaccuracies look naive or silly to us?

An interpretation of Bouguereau for a photoshop contest on worth1000.com

One of the snags of our over-scienced post-industrial age is that we now know everything, so we no longer need our imaginations. Another is that we don't make anything ourselves. Our day-glow hats and fanny packs are one size fits all, and will be out of vogue next year. Clothing is designed for the convenience of the manufacturer in worldwide uniformity. Shirts and jackets are emblazoned with company logos and pants are made extra baggy to fit our masses.

"Foreclosure" by Max Ginsburg

I don't mourn modern inventions, because they have afforded me more time and freedom to create.  The problem for a visual artist though is that it is difficult to make poetry out of the throw-away objects of mass-production.  The options before us are kind of like this:

1. Embrace modern fashion with tongue-in-cheek humor
2. Select less offensive or conspicuous contemporary fashions, or simplify by playing down the uglier aspects of them.
3. Invent your own clothing styles
4. Dress your models in period costumes, most likely mismatching different past eras.
5. No clothes at all.  (Easiest, but sometimes yields awkward results.)
6. Sheet.


Best of luck friends.

Rembrandt

Massaccio

William Whitaker

Odd nerdrum

My painting "Iconoclast"

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Max Ginsburg Retrospective Exhibitions and Book

If you're in New York or the midwest please check out one of Max Ginsburg's retrospective shows.  Max is an exciting painter, was one of my most influential teachers, taught Steven Assael and many great realist painters today. 

The show in New York will run through August 5 at the Salmagundi club in Gramercy and the other is September 15th - November 11th at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio.  Accompanying the exhibition is also a book of work spanning Max's career.  Very exciting.

"Foreclosure", Max Ginsburg

http://www.maxginsburg.com/retrospective.html

The Pieta Retold by a few of my favorite painters.

I have a thing for pietas.

Michelangelo did the famous one. The pieta is traditionally a depiction of Mary holding the dead Christ across her lap. Literally translated "piety", the word means something more like "mourning". in this case.

In art, though, the pieta is less a story than a form through which to express a certain emotion or pathos. It is not at all necessary to know the story, because the message is in the shapes and in the bodies. As in most of the classic motifs, they usually come from an ancient source predating Christianity, and are recycled and reinterpreted much like what a "standard" is to a jazz musician.

Above is an example of something like our pieta predating Jesus by nearly 600 years. It is by the greek painter, Douris, and represents the mythological characters, Eos and Memnon.

In this entry, though, I'll be focusing on some interpretations on this theme by contemporary artists.

Here are three by Bo Bartlett. The one above is a commentary on the Civil War.

Bo's use of the flayed lamb here is a clever parallel, and I like the way the sky itself looks like there is a fire for the sacrifice somewhere just outside of the frame.

This (above) is probably more accurately a descent from the cross. If you're offended by the female with nail wounds, remember that many women too were crucified in the days of the early church. I love all the urban debris scattered in the background, the red couch, and the guy pointing as if making some kind of accusation. I don't remember Bo's exact explanation for all of the stuff in it, but I don't really care. It's a staggeringly beautiful piece that cuts right down to the soul.

Vincent desiderio with his son. Check out the projected images in the background.

My rendition. Actually it's more of a "Madonna and Child" foreshadowing a "pieta." Ok, I said my "favorite painters". If I wasn't at least one of my favorites why would I continue bothering?

Steven Assael's parents.

Another steven Assael above. He did a few of these firefighter pietas with my pal David as the model for the little boy.

Here's a political pieta by Harvey Dinnerstein, a teacher of Assael. It is probably more accurately a "deposition" in which a group of disciples is carrying the body to the tomb, but in essence the same form. I'm not sure if he ever did a full painting of this, but I find it incredibly powerful. An image like this transcends the political message and becomes something universal and timeless. These are probably vietnam protesters, but could just as easily be a much older event or a future event. I enjoy the contrast between the limp, dead arm at the bottom and the defiantly raised arm, stabbing diagonally toward the upper left corner. I feel the outrage myself just looking at it.

Max Ginsburg is a great painter, but to me this one is a little overstated. The message here seems to be carried more by symbolic bits such as the flag, the screaming woman, the fire, and the blood, rather than in the shaping of light and the movement of the bodies. I might like it better in black and white.

Ooh, sepia is kind of nice. Actually I LOVE that!

Teachers of Mine: Max Ginsburg

"You need to find better-looking models."- Max Ginsburg

And so I did.

Max Ginsburg was one of my painting instructors in New York. He was also one of Steven Assael's teachers, and his influence on Steve can be seen when comparing their subway paintings.

"D", by Steven Assael

Max is the son of Abraham Ginsburg, a student of Charles Hawthorne. He is largely influenced by the work of the Russian social realists of the late nineteenth century, especially Ilya Repin. The social realists found nobility in peasant culture, and in the story of the common man. Max considers himself part of the tradition of social realism, but finds his inspiration in modern urban life in New York City.

"Procession" by Ilya Repin

The light in this one is quite Assael-ish .