Vanitas: Fashion and Art
The exhibition Vanitas: Fashion and Art examines the theme of vanitas as expressed by avant-garde ready to wear and haute couture fashion, and contemporary artworks.
The term ‘vanitas’ was traditionally used to refer to a type of still life painting popular in the Netherlands during the 17th century. Over time ‘vanitas’ has become more generally associated with art that focuses on the ephemeral character of worldly accomplishments. Vanitas highlight the fragility of our desires in the face of the inevitability of death and usually incorporates particular types of imagery that allude to the transience of life.
The Vanitas: Fashion and Art exhibition curated by Harold Koda (the Curator-in-Charge of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), is broken into sections of allegorical imagery often found in vanitas works, such as skulls, butterflies and poppies. Works featuring these themes include Jason Salavon’s Still Life (Vanitas) which presents a photo-realistic rendering of a candlestick and mammal skull; Mat Collishaw’s Insecticide photograph of crushed winged insects and a butterfly silkscreen print by Damien Hirst; and a poppy hat by Jasper Conran and Philip Treacy.
Avant-garde ready to wear and haute couture pieces by Isaac Mizrahi, Elsa Schiaparelli, Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld, Yohji Yamamoto and Iris van Herpen will be on display. These pieces from the world of fashion will be juxtaposed with contemporary film, video and photographical works.
Vanitas: Fashion and Art is on display until Sunday 20 July 2014 at the Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, USA.
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