The general process for this post was to try to write something, immediately get overwhelmed and move on to something else. Hence why it took me 5 years to come up with anything on NARS's holiday 2017 collection, which featured the work of Surrealist artist Man Ray. November 18, 2022 marks the 46th anniversary of the artist's passing, and since NARS's recent collections have been very lackluster I thought this is finally the year I get a post up about the Man Ray collab.
Fortunately (or unfortunately) there is a ton of information about the collection and Man Ray's work. I'm not going to delve too much into it because there are literally entire books on Man Ray, but I will highlight the artwork used in the NARS collection and the process behind it, along with some other connections between Man Ray and makeup outside of the collaboration. As with Sarah Moon and Andy Warhol, Francois Nars chose an artist that has inspired him for years. "You know it’s almost always the same the process [with these collaborations]. They’re always with people that inspire me either since I was a kid or for many, many years. I really pick them randomly, it’s pure attraction. I just think, 'Why don’t we do a collaboration with Man Ray?' It’s really people that have been influencing me a lot in my work, in my photography, in whatever I do. And people who I really love what they do. It’s very pure and simple." He approached the Man Ray Trust about using the artist's work for a makeup line, and was thrilled when they agreed.
Nars discovered the work of Man Ray as a teenager. The modernity of Man Ray's oeuvre as well as the range of subjects he captured for his portraits immediately caught Nars' eye. "I read that every time Man Ray received a visitor in his studio, he'd photograph them," he explains. "He couldn't help it. It could be a friend, his lover, the postman, his housekeeper. He loved taking photographs of anyone he ever met, which is something I can relate to. He was a great inspiration for me when I was starting out as a photographer…I always loved his portraits. That was something I kept in mind. My photography background influence is quite wide, but he had a very distinctive eye on photography and the way you photograph people. The lighting, the abstract feeling in his photographs, sometimes it became more like a painting—there was so much poetry. The poetic aspect in his photos is so interesting." Nars, a self-declared rule-breaker when it comes to makeup, also admires Man Ray's selection of unusual models, favoring those who did not possess conventional beauty but who were remarkable in their own way. "[I] remember the women in Man Ray's photographs were so dramatic in their looks and their choice of make-up. Man Ray was very daring in his casting, he was always searching for that type of unique beauty. I can relate to that, I don't tend to go for simple, pretty faces."
The use of makeup in Man Ray's photos strengthened their compositions despite (or maybe even due to) the absence of color. Nars points out that the makeup in Man Ray's work encourages the viewer to consider shadows, angles, contrast and the overall significance of the image rather than being distracted by vivid hues. The same principles can be applied to the face, i.e. color is not necessarily required to make an impact when the focus is on texture, placement, shapes, etc. "To me, something brilliantly coloured can look great represented in black and white. The lack of colour forces you to see something deeper in the object, but often just as beautiful. Make-up is similar. It’s not always about colour on the face. A very graphic, lined eye or defined lip creates a look that isn’t about colour at all. And, of course, some make-up – black eyeliner or a very dark red lip against pale skin – can appear almost black and white…As a make-up artist, I studied Man Ray’s models very carefully: the shape of a lip, the graphic eyeliner, the placement of the rouge on the cheek. The incredible thing about Man Ray is how his style still seems new, fresh, sharp, even today."
Dr. Wendy Grossman, an art historian and Man Ray expert who advised Nars on the collection, echoes his sentiments. She says, "Man Ray himself paid close attention to the way in which his models were made up. His radical cropping aesthetic led to dramatic images of lips, eyes, and hands, all of which draw the viewer’s attention to the components of the body most enhanced through the use of makeup. Man Ray was very precise and involved with the way his models were made up and staged for his photographs. Man Ray’s special talent was to bring out the unique beauty in each of them and find ways to add a 'surreal appeal' in the way he used lighting, shadows, camera angles to infuse his compositions with mystery and intrigue."
Indeed, Nars himself notes that trying the process of figuring out appropriate colors for the collection was an enjoyable one. "For me, part of the fun of looking at old black and white photographs is imagining what makeup colours and textures were used. Of course the models are wearing colour-probably black eyeliner, powder, dark lip colour-only we can't see it. I also like to imagine what colours Man Ray might have been drawn to if he was working today. And, almost as important, is the aesthetic and vision of beauty that Man Ray represented – it is bold and moody, and a little irreverent and edgy. That's what we have tried to capture in the shades of this collection." However, various shades of red as seen in the set below don't seem that daring; a deep eggplant shade or even black may have been more adventurous and representative of Man Ray's spirit.
Nars states his choice of Man Ray images for the collection were driven by "pure instinct, love and attraction." He was drawn to Man Ray's still life photos, but ultimately ended up selecting those that emphasized the face or certain body parts since they were more relevant to makeup. He also wanted to include Man Ray's most famous and iconic works, such as 1932's Glass Tears: "[While] many people might recognize the image, they may not know that it was Man Ray who created it, and also because as beauty images go, it's perfection." Appropriately enough, Glass Tears was used for a mascara ad.
Cosmecil d'Arlette Bernard mascara ad using Man Ray's Glass Tears, ca. 1934-1935 (image from elmundo.es)
Dr. Grossman explains how Man Ray became preoccupied with Miller's lips and how he incorporated them into much of his work after their split in 1932. "The lip motif began with Lee Miller, Man Ray’s model, muse and lover from 1929 to 1932. She had beautiful lips, which were featured in many of his photographs. She left him after a tumultuous affair, and he expressed his anger and hurt through an obsessive focus on her lips."
One of Man Ray's most famous images besides Glass Tears, The Lovers: Observatory Time (1936) was also used to sell makeup. It was exhibited at the end of 1936 in MoMA's "Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism" show. When the show closed the artist received a telegram from Helena Rubinstein requesting the painting. Man Ray states in his autobiography that he was "overjoyed" to let Madame borrow it for one of her stores in Manhattan. "[With] this windfall I’d be able to devote more time to painting in the future. After awhile, the painting carefully crated was returned to me followed by a letter of thanks from Madame Rubinstein. She had displayed it in her magnificent new beauty emporium on Fifth Avenue, featuring a new lipstick or some other beauty product. This I was told by some outraged friends. However, I wasn’t too upset; I was glad to have the painting back and showed it again in the Paris Surrealist show the next year."1
One of the more intriguing images chosen by Nars for the collection was a photo of his muse and model Adrienne "Ady" Fidelin. Ady was a dancer from Guadalupe and became the subject of nearly 400 of Man Ray's photos after they met in 1936. Dr. Grossman, whose upcoming book "Seeing 'Ady': Adrienne Fidelin, Man Ray, and the Recovery of a Black Surrealist Muse," presents an in-depth look at Ady and her relationship with the artist. She notes, "As with Man Ray’s other muses, Adrienne inspired him to create innovative images that drew on her engaging personality and unique attractive qualities. He found cause on more than one occasion to use her 'café au lait' skin tone as a compositional feature to play on the theme of black and white that permeated his photographic work."
The image that appears on the eyeshadow palette originally appeared in the September 15, 1937 issue of Harper's Bazaar. It was part of a larger collection of roughly 30 photos entitled "Mode au Congo" in which models wore an array of Congolese headdresses borrowed from a Paris gallery. In "Unmasking Adrienne Fidelin: Picasso, Man Ray, and the (In)Visibility of Racial Difference," Dr. Grossman explains the significance of Ady's Harper's Bazaar portrait. She points out that in a strange paradox, the exotification and racialization of Ady permitted her to be the first Black model in a leading American fashion publication. "The only model of color among those the artist posed sporting one of these headdresses, Fidelin is represented in all nine compositions in which she features in a manner that draws attention to her racial difference: bare shouldered (and bare breasted in several), outfitted with a tiger’s tooth necklace and ivory bangle, and seductively posed…This treatment is exploited in a spread in the September 15, 1937 issue of Harper’s Bazaar where selected images from this series frame an essay by the French surrealist poet Paul Éluard. In the full-page reproduction taking up one half of the spread, the Guadeloupean model is staged to evoke the fashionable 'African native' extoled in the article’s headline, 'The Bushongo of Africa sends his hats to Paris.' This fanciful projection of difference and the assimilation of Fidelin’s identity into a homogenizing notion of blackness literally and figuratively sets her apart from the white European models similarly crowned in Man Ray’s [other] photographs…Ironically, it is arguably this paradoxical treatment of Fidelin that led to the publication of the image even in the face of intransigent racial barriers in the fashion industry. This Guadeloupean woman in the guise of an African thus unceremoniously became the first black model to be featured on the pages of a major American fashion magazine." On the one hand, Nars' inclusion of Ady can be viewed as positive, since even former art history majors and Surrealism enthusiasts such as myself were not aware of her or the fact that she broke significant ground in the fashion world. On the other hand, it may have been more appropriate to use a less exotified image of Ady, iconic though it may be. Plus, if it was really an inclusive gesture meant to familiarize the public with Ady, the company would not have made the decision to sell the palette in a very limited market – to my knowledge, Love Game was only available in the U.K.
In any case, another interesting cosmetics connection to consider is that Man Ray himself dabbled in makeup, frequently painting the face of Kiki de Montparnasse, his lover from 1921-1929. According to biographer Neil Baldwin, "[Man Ray] designed Kiki’s face and painted on it with his own hand. First Man Ray shaved her eyebrows completely, and then he applied others in their place, varying the color, thickness, and angle according to his mood. Her heavy eyelids, next, might be done in copper one day and royal blue another, or else in silver or jade."2 Scholar Susan Keller notes that by applying her makeup in this way, Man Ray was helping to develop a public persona for Kiki rather than portraying a likeness of her. "Instead of representing her, Man Ray was producing her, creating a public mask that was impossible to view separate from her, unlike a portrait on canvas, where the original and the copy (the woman and the portrait) are easily distinguished."3
Man Ray also applied Kiki's eye makeup for his short 1926 film Emak Batia. The artist explains: "[Kiki's] penchant for excessive makeup gave me the idea. On her closed eyelids I painted a pair of artificial eyes which I filmed, having her open her own eyes, gradually disclosing them. Her lips broke into a smile showing her even teeth. Finis – I added in dissolving letters."4
Keller explains how Man Ray elevated makeup to a true art form. "[Man Ray’s] cosmetic games were hardly unique; countless women have used and still do use makeup to reinvent or to stabilize their appearances every day. Man Ray’s status as an artist, however, and his Surreal play with the conventions of makeup, serve to expose by making marvelous women's everyday behavior usually seen as too trivial or mundane to be contemplated in any depth…In keeping with the Surrealist themes of dreams and the unconscious, Kiki’s fantastic makeup shows her both literally awakening and what might be seen as a metaphoric awakening from the deadening world of everyday assumptions, moving from the world of the real to the more-than-real or surreal, just as the film itself was supposed to shock audiences out of their mundane lives into a receptivity for more utopian possibilities."5 This makes sense; however, I still think the idea of makeup as art in this case would not have happened if a Surrealist woman artist, such as Méret Oppenheim or Leonora Carrington, had painted Kiki for the film. The popular perception at the time was that makeup is art only if a man does it. It's akin to food preparation in that women are cooks but men are chefs.
As with all artist collabs, there was speculation about what Man Ray would have thought of his work appearing on a makeup collection. Personally I agree with Dr. Grossman that he would have been flattered, especially given his positive endorsement of Helena Rubinstein putting his art in a store window. "I think Man Ray would appreciate seeing his photographs embraced in this fashion. It would probably not surprise him that the invitation came from a Frenchman; he always felt that the French had a much greater appreciation of his vision and creative practice than did people in his native United States."
Now for a special treat. Via one of the Museum's board members, I had the incredible honor of talking with Dr. Grossman herself about this collection! She was also kind enough to share a photo of the PR box she received from NARS. Truly museum-worthy!
(image courtesy of Dr. Wendy Grossman)
What do you think of this collab and Man Ray? Would you like to see a deep dive into Surrealism and makeup?
1Man Ray, Self-Portrait (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1963), 257-258. For more on Rubinstein's usage of Man Ray's work, see Marie Clifford, "Brand Name Modernism: Helena Rubinstein’s Art Collection, Femininity, and the Marketing of Modern Style, 1925-1940," (PhD diss. University of California, Los Angeles, 1999).
2Neil Baldwin, Man Ray, American Artist (New York: C.N. Potter, 1988), 107.
3Susan Lynn Keller, "Making Up Modernity: Fashioning the Feminine in Early -Twentieth -Century U.S. Culture" (PhD diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2008), 238, ProQuest (3330475). By contrast, Lee Miller did not allow Man Ray to "create" her by allowing him to apply makeup: "Some said that Man had 'created' Kiki by designing bizarre makeup and painting it on her – even shaving off her eyebrows and replacing them with new ones at odd angles. Lee needed no embellishment, nor would she submit to being redesigned." From Lee Miller: A Life by Carolyn Burke, (New York: Knopf, 2005), 81.
4Man Ray, 272.
5Keller, 238.
Multimedia artist Sylvie Fleury (b. 1961; Switzerland) is truly speaking my language. While her works involving fashion, rockets, and neon signs are certainly thought-provoking, it's Fleury's larger-than-life reproductions of makeup products that will be the focus of this post.
In 2017 Manhattan gallery Salon 94 opened a solo exhibition entitled Eye Shadows, and this group of works further honed the recurring themes of consumerism, art history, beauty standards, gender and the commercialization of art. In an interview with Vogue that year, Fleury explains how she arrived at supersizing makeup. "One day, after having seen these compacts for all these years, suddenly I realized, in fact, they are really good abstract paintings! My practice often takes me in the way of the ready-made, or there is often a temptation to do new things by reshowing what is already part of our world. But at the same time it’s about making abstract painting; it is also figurative because [the work] depicts something that exists, an object."1
Naturally, my personal opinion is that Fleury is a staunch ally in the makeup-as-art stance. By taking makeup out of its usual contexts – stores, purses, vanities, etc. – and placing it in an art gallery, along with other tactics, Fleury transforms cosmetic objects into literal art while acknowledging its base nature as a commodity.
It's no accident that the brushes typically accompanying luxury makeup products are removed. While many lower-priced makeup lines omit them regularly as a cost-saving measure, some mid- and higher-end makeup lines occasionally do this as a way of encouraging creativity in the user rather than ascribing to usual application methods. In their 2021 collaboration with MAC, for example, designer Harris Reed noted that brushes were deliberately left out of the collection's products: "Nothing is in a tube and nothing has a brush. It's really all very much like an artist palette." Going back further, Vincent Beaurin's Tablettes de Bastet palette for Dior, with its heavy stone slabs and primary colors, evokes ancient art materials and the ritualistic aspect of applying makeup. While any makeup aficionado can easily recognize the individual brands (if not the exact products) the lack of visible brand names is another key element in the transformation from consumer good to means of self-expression and objet d'art.
Along with ridding the makeup of visible branding and brushes, Fleury deliberately chooses to leave out what is usually considered an essential part of a cosmetic compact. The lack of mirrors forces the viewer to focus on their own interpretations of the piece rather than as a makeup product. No mirrors, she says, "was a purposeful choice, because in most cases, art already functions as a mirror…when you look at something, you are taken back to wherever you are in your own head." In some cases the viewer, depending on their shopping habits and whether they wear makeup, also contemplates their relationship with beauty standards and consumerism. As Alex Beggs ponders in a 2017 article for Vice, "If you blow up a makeup compact, something usually stowed away in the pockets of a purse, to bring viewers face to face with it, they'll begin to see something beyond the pigments. Am I unhealthily obsessed with painting my face? Or maybe I'm not appreciating how much beauty exists within the product itself? Are haul photos making me high? Do I have a Tom Ford lipstick fetish? Am I assigning value and meaning to bronzer based on its shiny black package? Do the round symmetrical shapes of the palettes signify some perfection I'll never attain?" Fleury's work blurs the line between fine art and makeup and in doing so, allows for deeper analysis of both worlds.
Though simple compositions, the paintings require elaborate and time-consuming work to complete. Fleury explains that she carefully paints precise layers of acrylic and uses a combination of matte and shimmer paint, sometimes adding glitter flakes to create exact replicas of makeup's many textures as well as that of the container itself. The painstaking process and resulting surfaces speak not only to the tactile nature of makeup – one visitor at the Eye Shadows exhibition confessed she wanted to put her hands across the paintings – but to women's labor in trying to meet traditional beauty standards. The artist's brushwork "achieves the smooth lines and surfaces of factory-manufactured goods, while simultaneously mimicking the ritualistic application of make-up, suggesting the pursuit of the perfect 'finish'." The process also serves as a reminder that makeup application, historically performed mostly by women and therefore perceived as a frivolous activity, parallels the lack of respect for women artists more generally. Fleury's response to this long-held patriarchal view was arguably voiced in a work at her first solo show in 1992. Entitled "Private Lessons," Fleury played a video tape of a makeup tutorial she had purchased from Bloomingdale's as a "comment on the male-dominated paradigms through which we define skill and artistry."
Fleury challenges the patriarchal tradition of male artists, or, "playfully redefines the canon in a decidedly feminine voice." By rendering makeup palettes in the same styles as art movements "pioneered" by men (Abstract, Color Field, Op Art, Pop Art, etc.), Fleury reminds the viewer of women's oft-ignored contributions to art history.2 In particular, some of the works in her 2018-2019 Palettes of Shadows exhibition served as a direct response a 1964 Guggenheim show of all-male artists: Paul Feeley, Sven Lukin, Richard Smith, Frank Stella, and Neil Williams contributed to The Shaped Canvas, an exhibition featuring sculpture/painting hybrids that play with shape and space, questioning the tradition of the two-dimensional, rectangular canvas in painting. Fleury's pieces, particularly the Chanel replicas, are curved to perfectly mimic the lines of the palettes as well as the rounded individual shades. "In her exhibition, Fleury has reduced and simplified the forms of femininity so that, for instance, a makeup palette becomes a pink sphere in one painting…through the clear dialogue she’s entered into with midcentury Pop Art, she questions these seemingly masculine stylistic modes, which, in addition to being gendered, also tend to be viewed as symbols of power. By putting her art into conversation with the aforementioned artists, Fleury has implicitly laid her own claim to their power — makeup and traditional femininity are, she ultimately implies, legitimate forms of power in their own right."
When gathered in a single painting, all of these elements – along with the lack of mirrors, brushes and obvious branding – collectively work together as a feminist response to the art history canon and rejects the misguided notions that makeup is shallow, is not art and does not belong in a museum/gallery. Fleury's work emphasizes that makeup's historic, cultural and artistic value literally extends beyond the store, and demonstrates that makeup artistry and the objects used to create it do indeed belong in spaces traditionally intended for fine art. In a 2019 interview with WWD, Fleury reiterates the importance of makeup and fashion in creating a serious discourse about broader issues. "In the Nineties, they felt that fashion was a lower kind of art. When I first started showing my work I got criticized for incorporating elements of beauty and makeup, but I wanted to show that it's not superficial and in fact, you can use fashion and beauty to talk about feminism, politics and consumerism."
Along those lines, the works highlight the gatekeeping and snobbery so prevalent in the art and fashion worlds. "When I used bags from places where it was cool to shop at the time, it was also a way to refer to the art market and to the fact that gallery only exhibited artists whose names appeared in Artforum," Fleury recalls.
The paintings also challenge makeup's ephemeral nature and the latest barrage of products and shades. States the press release for the Eye Shadows exhibition, "Fleury has long been interested in the way the makeup industry discards the 'new,' mere months after a long and extensive research process into textures, colors, and names. The attributes the cosmetics industry takes into consideration when developing a product, Fleury argues, are not dissimilar to those an artist may consider when creating a new body of work. But while makeup is wiped clean nightly, art is meant to exist for eternity… these works point to the fleeting and cyclical essence of fashion and advertising. They hint at society’s broader concerns with temporality and permanence, and the disposability or temporary nature of value in contemporary society: the utopian promise has a pre-determined, seasonal shelf-life." By positioning cosmetics as permanent art objects, Fleury both acknowledges and resists the temporary nature of makeup, capturing its essence as a legitimate art medium.
Perhaps the most crucial element in Fleury's metamorphosis of makeup into art is size. The monumental scale of these works could be perceived not only as a disruption of white male supremacy in art history nor as makeup's cultural and historical importance writ large, but also a reclamation of the space that the patriarchy has repeatedly told women they either don't belong in (in the case of "high" art and art history) or not supposed to take up more generally. Along with Fleury's self-description as a "punk feminist in disguise", I can't help but be reminded of Riot Grrrl's rallying cry of "girls to the front!". Their endeavors to carve out physical space for women at shows, figurative space within the male-dominated punk scene and society as a whole used entirely different tactics from Fleury, but the sentiment is very much the same.
Occasionally, however, Fleury's approach can veer into the trap of the gender binary. "Patriarchal, capitalist societies always fear women’s desire and creativity. What I was and still am interested in, is eliminating as many boundaries in as many fields as possible. My practice of referencing iconic artworks comes, amongst other things, from a desire to balance the gender of artworks. I freely select an iconic, male artwork and inject my yin into the yang. I think much of my work stems from this idea of rebalancing opposing views, lifestyles, attitudes – seeing also where these can meet sometimes." I think Fleury does a bit of disservice to herself with the phrasing of "balance the gender" and "yin into the yang", as her work is more complex than the rather simplistic view of gender she discusses here. The dichotomy of masculine/feminine somewhat undermines the fact that plenty of men and non-binary people wear makeup.
The size of the makeup palettes is also a commentary on the power these tiny objects have, our overwhelming desire for them and all-encompassing consumerism of our daily lives. Fleury states, "Why has consuming become such a big part of our world, and how did it become to be so? I see myself as a sensible woman, yet I can have these huge craving for new things, sometimes just by looking at (makeup) boxes…I have the wisdom to know I am being seduced; yet I’ll ask, should I deprive myself?" While the brands aren't visible, Fleury often uses the shade or product names as titles, further highlighting their seductive appeal. "All of these cosmetics have such amazing names; there’s a lot of literature on the boxes. For instance, the Chanel ones, they are called Multi-Effect [eyeshadow], and there’s the name of the collection and then each of the colors…the round one that’s all black is called Eyes to Kill—a perfect little title," she says.
Fleury's makeup paintings function as a simultaneous criticism of consumer culture and a celebration of our desire for certain objects; they are ambivalent towards the fetishization of commodities3. On the one hand Fleury seemingly endorses the power that objects have, especially those usually purchased by women. Citing fellow art historian Peter Weibel, Barbara Hess points out that "[while] there are countless works of art that legitimise male pleasures, there are hardly any that celebrate the indulgences of women in like manner."4 Adds Alexander Gawronski: "Some of the artist's own statements contradict this absolutely sounding like unapologetic identifications with global commodity culture: 'I urge the audience to enjoy! Whatever they must do to get their kicks'".5 On the other hand, Fleury says she hopes viewers of Eye Shadows and similar works will get "the feeling of satisfaction without having to consume," perhaps recognizing the harm that can result from constant over-buying of the latest non-essential items. Observes Laetitia Queryanne, "The obsession and addiction to newness functions perfectly to perpetuate the cycle of consumption, since its intangibility and ephemerality constantly leave one wanting more. And this 'wanting more' is precisely what the work of these artists expose, the desire for and yearning for fulfillment via an object or a commodity clearly reflect a serious dysfunction of contemporary consumer society."6
The makeup paintings also highlight the parallel between consumerism and the heightened commercialization of fine art. "We have become accustomed to looking, inspecting, admiring, desiring commodities that this kind of looking may inadvertently transfer to looking at art," notes Queryanne. Indeed, the authors of "M(Art)Worlds: Consumer Perceptions of How Luxury Brand Stores Become Art Institutions" discuss how many stores have appropriated museum layouts, displaying their wares as in an art gallery. "Objects for sale are displayed alongside actual art, rendering both products equivalent." While Fleury may be critiquing the overlap of stores and museums, a more cynical view is that ultimately she is profiting from the idea. The artist "can claim she’s providing a clever criticism while also reaping the rewards of their sales." The blurred lines between art and commodity can sometimes be interpreted as hypocrisy on the part of artists like Fleury whose work centers on issues of consumerism. It should be noted that in 2018 Fleury collaborated with artisanal belt purveyor J. Hopenstand to design a leather belt featuring interchangeable eyeshadows as well luxury as lipstick brand La Bouche Rouge, creating 4 shades of lipstick to be sold alongside sweatshirts quoting Gloria Steinem. Writes Lindsay Preston Zappas for Art Review, "Fleury offers us the lip shades of the season, and the feminist aphorism to match…[The] compact mirror and high heel are celebrated as weapons of war. That these symbols may have been opposed by a strain of feminism that rejected symbols of a certain ideal of femininity – high heels and makeup among them – further Fleury’s output. As if through owning conventions of beauty one might find a kind of punk-rock freedom."
While I don't think owning makeup is necessarily an act of feminist empowerment, for the most part I see little issue with artists collaborating to sell everyday objects; as I've said many times before, makeup and other consumer goods are a way to discover various artists, and an affordable means of owning their art. Paintings that are only accessible via museums (or through being a billionaire) can now sit on your vanity, your desk, in your kitchen cupboard, or hang in your closet. In Fleury's case, it's not as though most can afford one of her paintings (or the $2,500 belt, really), so a fancy lipstick is a somewhat satisfactory substitute.
In another art/commodity crossover, makeup artists and designers have borrowed Fleury's work for their own products. Aaron de Mey discusses the inspiration for his 2009 Pink Irreverence collection for Lancome: "Pink Irreverence is all about opposites and extremes—blacks and pinks, clashing colors and textures. I wanted to show that a collection based around a traditional beauty color such as pink could be surprising. Surprise is everything I'm about…In creating Pink Irreverence, I was inspired by everything from the punk culture of London in the 70s to the work of artist Sylvie Fleury, to the rose, which is the symbol of Lancome and New Zealand, where I'm from." Five years later, Prabal Gurung revealed that the gold pattern on the packaging for his MAC collection was taken from "the subversive beauty of Sylvie Fleury's gold-plated trash cans."
Perhaps the ultimate meeting of the fashion and beauty industry with the art world comes in the form of Fleury's color selection. Instead of using Pantone colors or nature-based hues, the artist prefers the shades found in fashion magazines and makeup products. "When I started doing installations, I was very fond of the practice of doing wall paintings and painting the pedestals. My work often dealt with fashion, so I would pick a favorite color for my show that you could find in the fashion world, whatever was in season. In the '90s, I had to send my information by fax to the galleries; for a wall painting, let’s say, I would send the typeface and the color. I never liked using the Pantones, so I would always use [my own] system—which is that magazines travel all around the world, and so does makeup. I would say, 'I would like the wall to be beige,' and then I would give the number and the brand of a foundation, and get the painter to go and buy it. Or I would say, 'The letters should be the same yellow as the bathing suit on page 92 of American Vogue for April.' Painters have palettes; I use makeup colors." This is yet another example of the blurring between cosmetics and art. The irony, of course, is that the concept has since been reversed and used to sell makeup.
Of all the artists featured in the Makeup as Muse series, I believe Sylvie Fleury most thoroughly explores the overlap of makeup and fine art. While I think I've presented a fairly in-depth discussion of her recent work, some questions remain: first, where does race fit in within these paintings? Take, for example, last year's Best of Me (Vanilla Cream). Gender has always been the main theme in Fleury's work, but it's interesting to consider what her take would be on the intersection of race, art history and the makeup industry – particularly through the lens of the food-inspired names that are ubiquitous for shades intended for deep skin tones, as she often uses the product names in her titles.
Also, how does she avoid copyright infringement lawsuits from Estée Lauder and the like? Perhaps because her art is so entwined with the products and their marketing, makeup companies may see it as another form of advertising.
What are your thoughts? Though I am totally surrounded by makeup, I would absolutely love to have at least one of these hanging up on my walls! My other dream is to have a whole Makeup as Muse exhibition that features all of the artists discussed to date in the Museum's blog series, plus many others. 🙂
1Fleury adds that it's the composition of a particular makeup item that appeals to her and its ability to fit within her artistic practice. "I'm not reproducing the ones that I use or that I love the most. I'm reproducing the ones that strongly call to me because they look like miniature artworks and the ones that fit my purpose." Ma, Fiona. 2019. "Fashion Scoops: Makeup as Art." Wwd, Apr 08, 19. https://www.proquest.com/magazines/fashion-scoops-makeup-as-art/docview/2312169129/se-2.
3"[It] is unclear whether consumerism, branding, and commodification is being celebrated or condemned. Yet, it is clearly asking its viewer to contemplate the dynamics of art's relationship with consumer culture." Serota, Kaitlin Leigh. 2017. "Art & Cultural Capital: The Economics of Art Investment." Order No. 10282887, Dartmouth College. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/art-amp-cultural-capital-economics-investment/docview/1949711081/se-2., p. 63-64 Fleury herself states, "There is an ambivalence in my work. I have a tendency to contradict myself, and I don’t mind that. I fear things that make too much sense."
4Barbara Hess, "Sylvie Fleury: The World as a Shopping Basket," in Women Artists in the 20th and 21st Century, ed. Uta Grosenick, Koln: Taschen, 2001, p. 137.
5Gawronski, Alexander. 2021. "Art as Critique Under Neoliberalism: Negativity Undoing Economic Naturalism." Arts 10 (1): 11, p. 6. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/arts10010011.
6Queyranne, Laetitia. 2012. "Displays of Desire: The Interrelationships between Art, Display and Consumer Culture." Order No. 1514975, Sotheby's Institute of Art – New York. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/displays-desire-interrelationships-between-art/docview/1032785380/se-2, p. 55.
Over the past 4 years or so there has been an explosion of new Chinese makeup brands. Parts 2 and 3 of this post will more fully explore the how's and why's of this growth, along with a variety of brands, but in the meantime I wanted to focus on one called Florasis. Florasis (花西子, Huaxizi1) was founded in 2017 and celebrates traditional Chinese beauty and culture. It was certainly a breath of fresh air, since, as we've seen, makeup is rife with cultural appropriation when it comes to China.
What I love about Florasis is the artistry behind their collections. According to their site, the company hired master craftspeople to help design the packaging.
There are quite a few collections inspired by various aspects of Chinese culture, so I'll be presenting very brief summaries of each as detailed histories are far beyond this post – they could be (and some are) entire books!
First up is the Miao collection that was released in late 2020. The collection celebrates the silver work and embroidery that have been centuries-old traditions of the Miao people, one of 56 officially recognized ethnic minorities in China.
These two necklaces are at the Bowers Museum, whose guide to their Masters of Silver exhibition provides a good summary of Miao silver artistry: "Male silversmiths create a variety of ornaments through casting, smelting, repoussé (a reverse hammering technique), forging, engraving, knitting, coiling, cutting, and other methods. Concepts such as beauty, unity, fortune, and pride are expressed as visual abstractions and geometric motifs. Silver itself is symbolic of light, the moon, fertility, and protection against evil, but it also represents a woman’s wealth and plays a role in courtship. Families spare no expense in adorning their daughters, purchasing additional pieces as they are able. Worn mostly in large festivals, the headdresses, combs, earrings, necklaces, breastplates, bracelets, rings, ornaments, and the counterweights on display here can weigh up to twenty pounds. The fine work aims to attract suitors who look at each garment as measures of the wearer’s qualities. In marriage, silver acts a woman’s dowry and is eventually passed down from mother to daughter." The necklace on the right is actually a bridal collar. While the traditions surrounding Miao silverwork reflect a rather sexist patriarchal structure within their culture, some of the craftsmen are using it as a way to lift their community out of poverty and ensure the practice does not go extinct.
The Miao produce intricate embroidered garments in addition to silver jewelry.2 As the National Museum of Asian Art explains, "Because the Miao people do not have their own written language, their embroideries often take the role of documenting their history and culture. Their embroideries reflect their world view, values, history, religions, and the social changes they have experienced over the centuries. Working with silk and cotton thread, as well as with horsehair, embroiderers adorn cuffs, sleeves, collars, and tunic fronts with designs of mythical animals (dragons and phoenixes) and ordinary insects, fish, and flowers. Vibrant colors—such as scarlet, pink, purple, dark blue, and bottle green—are frequently used." The box set from Florasis opens to reveal three drawers adorned with patterns in the style of Miao embroidery.
This beautiful example is also from the Bowers Museum. The butterfly is a common motif in Miao embroidery, as part of their folklore centers on the tale of the "Butterfly Mother" from which all Miao people have descended. The legend says that the Butterfly Mother laid 12 eggs, one of which hatched to become the Miao people, and the rest hatched into other earthly creatures so that the Miao would not be lonely.
Florasis named their Miao palette the Butterfly palette and claim the pattern consists of butterflies, although I can't say I see any. It looks more like a floral design to my eye.
Next up is the Impression of Dai collection, which also uses the art and traditions of another ethnic minority in China, the Dai people. According to this site, "the Dai are closely related to both the Lao and Thai peoples, having a closely intertwined history and a relatively close geographical position. There are over one million Dai living in China, primarily in the southern Yunnan province."
For the Dai, peacocks symbolize "beauty and peace, and are said to be a good omen." In fact, peacocks are so significant in Dai culture that they created a whole dance! This traditional folk dance goes back thousands of years and mimics the bird's graceful movements. In 2006, along with Miao embroidery, it was added to China's national intangible heritage list. Also, if you look closely at the background of the ivory side of the powder, there's a gorgeous embossed pattern. The Florasis site states that the collection was inspired by Dai brocade. Once again, there are entire papers written about Daibrocade so I can't go into much detail and I couldn't really find a brocade that resembled the pattern, but it definitely looks like fabric.
For some reason I completely spaced on getting the Impression of Dai lipstick. I think I thought I had purchased it and then realized I forgot when the package arrived. Ah well, I'll pick it up another time but I need to do it soon as it's limited edition. The lipstick features exquisite carving that's as intricate as the Miao one, but with a peacock motif. The Florasis site indicates that the lipstick formula contains essences of dendrobium nobile (a type of orchid native to southern China) and lotus flower, and claims these ingredients are used by the Dai. I can't find any hard evidence of that claim, but orchids and lotus flowers have been used for centuries in Chinese medicine and cosmetics so it seems plausible.
Not only does Florasis use artists to design the packaging, for the Dai collection they also worked with Fang Langlang, an artist who recreated the collection using sand.
Next in Florasis's little trove of treasures is the Eastern Beasts face palette. Each section depicts an animal associated with one of the Four Symbols that are based on constellations, also known as the Four Auspicious Beasts (why Florasis is calling the palette Eastern Beasts is not clear).
First is the Green Dragon, representing spring. (I think they may have meant Azure Dragon…maybe they mistranslated azure as green and not blue.)
Then Vermilion Bird, symbolizing summer:
White Tiger, which corresponds to autumn:
Finally, there's the Black Tortoise who represents winter.
While I love the patterns and overall concept, it's driving me a little crazy that the Four Auspicious Beasts are out of order when one considers they are also seen as the guardians of the 4 cardinal directions. The Black Tortoise is associated with the north and the Vermilion Bird with the south so those should be reversed. The same goes for the Dragon and White Tiger (east and west, respectively). They should have been arranged in the palette as in this photo.
As with the Dai lipstick, I failed to purchase the Phoenix palette, the Blooming Rouge lipsticks and the Fairy Peach Blossom powder, so stock photos will have to suffice for now. I plan on adding them to the Museum's collection gradually – considering the lipsticks alone range from $29-49 each they're not inexpensive so I can't buy them all at once, alas. In the meantime, let's take a peek at these gorgeous pieces.
The palette's design is inspired by Chinese folding screens, and the engraved patterns depict scenes from the myth "All Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix". According to the legend, the phoenix carefully gathered fruit and seeds while the other birds mocked him for being greedy. But one day there was a drought and the birds had nothing to eat. The phoenix opened his den to the other birds and shared the food he had saved. To show their gratitude, each bird plucked out their most colorful feather, made a crown out of them and presented it to the phoenix. Every year the birds return to the phoenix to thank him. The story inspired much vibrant visualart, but perhaps the most well-known influence of the legend is a musical arrangement by Chinese composer Wang Jianzhong (1933-2016), which you can listen to here. It really does capture the birds' liveliness and movement.
I'm particularly struck by the gold scrollwork along the edges, as it's a small but significant detail in making the palette truly resemble a folding screen.
The original Fairy Peach Blossom powder (not the peacock-embossed Dai version) is inspired by the ancient Silk Road, a network of trade routes connecting China to the Middle East and Europe. As robbers were common, traders often banded together in large caravans with their camels and other pack animals.
Now let's look at the lipsticks. Some of them feature embossed dragons, phoenixes, azalea, and peony patterns, all of which are deeply symbolic in Chinese culture.
But some of the designs tell a more specific story. The Porcelain lipstick is a tribute to the Ding kilns, which produced beautiful white glazed ceramics for many centuries. According to this site, the kilns were "built during the late Tang Dynasty (618-907), flourished in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) and declined in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368)". The sites of the kilns were lost until about 1934 and finally excavated in the early 1960s. Florasis decorated the lipstick case with lotus petals, which resemble ones found on some plates produced by the Ding kilns, and sculpted the lipstick itself with images of kiln workers (I think?)
This lipstick depicts the legend of the white snake. While the story circulated during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), the first written version did not appear until the early 17th century and there have been many alternate versions. I'm greatly oversimplifying here, but basically the myth describes a shape-shifting white snake who assumes human form under the name of Bai Su Zhen and eventually marries a man named Xu Xian. He discovers her true form years later but they remain in love. Bai gives birth to their son, Xu Mengjiao, but is then imprisoned in a pagoda by her long-time enemy Fa Hai (another shape-shifter between tortoise and man.) Twenty years later, Bai is freed by her friend and fellow snake lady Xiao Qing. She reunites with her husband and son. As with "All Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix", the story has inspired countless artistic creations, including traditional and modern operas as well as a TV series. Unsurprisingly, the star of the show, Ju Jingyi, was tapped as Florasis's first celebrity endorser in 2019.
The inspiration for what Florasis calls Blooming Flowers on the Way Home is not quite as clear, but I think it might refer to a love story about Qian Liu (852-932 CE), the founder and first ruler of the Wuyue kingdom (907-978 CE), writing a love letter to his wife. Each spring Qian Liu's wife would go out of town to visit her parents for a few days. One year he penned a letter to her letting her know the flowers had bloomed and were waiting for her at home just as he was: "Flowers by the path are now in full bloom, and I’m here expecting you to come back soon" (I don't know how accurate that translation is but it makes sense).
This one is probably my favorite of the Blooming Rouge Love Lock lipsticks. The embossing shows Zhang Chang, a government official during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) painting his wife's eyebrows. He would do this each morning as hers were damaged in a childhood accident. Painting eyebrows became a symbol of commitment and a loving relationship.3
Florasis cleverly spun the traditional story to be used in a Valentine's Day promotion for their eyebrow pencils.
Finally, there's this exquisite palette, which depicts scenes from the poem "The Nymph of the Luo River". The poem was written by Cao Zhi (192-232 CE) and painted on a massive scroll originally by Gu Kaizhi (ca. 344-406 CE). In a nutshell, Cao Zhi visits the Luo river with his servants and happens upon a beautiful nymph. They have a brief and ultimately unsuccessful love affair.
I'm not entirely sure the palette reads left to right, as the original scroll painting by Kaizhi is right to left, but Florasis may have arranged it that way for Western customers. Based on the copies of Kaizhi's painting, one of which hangs in China's Palace Museum, the two panels at the bottom and the second one from the left show the horses that escorted Cao Zhi to and from the river. The light gold color is embossed with the nymph.
Towards the right of the palette, we see Cao Zhi observing and falling in love with the nymph. The far right panel I'm not sure what it could be – if the palette does indeed start on the right, then it would be Cao Zhi and his servants arriving at the river, but if it starts on the left, he would be leaving.
In any case, here are some details from Gu Kaizhi's painting.
So far Florasis's practice of highlighting traditional Chinese culture while leveraging the latest online sales tactics has proved fruitful. By 2020 sales reached approximately $442 million. That same year it was the top selling beauty brand on Douyin, an app nearly identical to TikTok. There are a few reasons for the brand's popularity. As many Western makeup buyers have not been previously exposed to many aspects of Chinese art and culture (myself included), Florasis's products represent something new and different; they go beyond stereotypes or cultural phenomena such as Lunar New Year celebrations that are now well-known in the West. Learning more about China's cultural heritage via makeup is very appealing to Western audiences. As Juliette Duveau, a co-founder of the marketing consultancy The Chinese Pulse remarks, Florasis has both "a super interesting brand identity and storytelling for Western countries."
The novelty of foreignness is the other side of the same coin for Chinese customers. Florasis is proving popular there as well precisely because the culture is familiar. The various artistic traditions and folklore are things they grew up with and are a source of comfort and national pride, particularly as the appetite for guochao in China (literally "national trend") grew in 2020. "Part of the wave Florasis has caught is a resurgence in reverie for culturally Chinese brands and products…sentimental resonance has been cast inward by many Chinese consumers and accelerated in a post-pandemic landscape in need and want of a little more local," writes Alixanne Hucker for The Challenger Project.
Another reason for Florasis's success is the relatively small product range and price point. While it can't be categorized as affordable, it's not a luxury line either. The product range is small compared to other brands, many of which seem to churn out new collabs and collections each week. The overall effect helps shed the "made in China" stigma of cheap, poorly made goods and delivers quality products at a reasonable price.
Finally, packaging is key to Florasis's popularity. Other C-beauty brands such as Maogeping, Zeesea and Flower Knows (stay tuned for posts on these!) incorporate eye-catching design and celebrate Chinese culture, but none have quite the level of detail of Florasis. Nor do any of them, to my knowledge, use master artisans to assist in the creation of the product designs. As one article notes, the products "have an 'instantaneous heirloom' quality about them. They sit comfortably in opposition to the Western giants that have previously dominated the market, and the wider category’s fixation on functionality."
I have two slight critiques of Florasis. First, I would like to see more of the proceeds being diverted to organizations that support the cultural heritage of China. Their website states, "We proudly sponsor activities in disaster relief, poverty assistance, female empowerment, and intangible cultural heritage to create value for society." The only evidence of their "social responsibility" I could find was the donation of 1 million yuan (roughly $150,000) to the Wuhan Charity Foundation in 2019, and the launch of the Miao Girls' Educational Assistance Program, a charity project run in conjunction with the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (but I can't find any solid proof of as it was only mentioned in one article). While these initiatives are certainly better than nothing, it would be great if they did this for all their products, such as giving a portion of the profits from the Impression of Dai collection to an organization that helps the Dai people. If a Chinese brand (or any brand, for that matter) is going to profit off of a particular culture, even if it's one's own, they need to do their part in giving back to that community.
Second, as with most C-beauty, K-beauty and J-beauty brands, Florasis needs to greatly expand their base shade range if they want to be more fully accepted in Western markets, especially in the U.S. Explains one consulting firm: "While many Westerners do enjoy the design and aesthetic of Florasis packaging, the skin tones and the color preferences are different. China’s beauty preferences are reflective of the homogeneous society whereas the West has much more diversity. Westerners are used to beauty brands that increasingly cater to a wide variety of skin tones, which means Chinese beauty brands [that] enter the West will need to adapt to the diverse preferences." Not only is a comprehensive shade range necessary to profit in the U.S., it's important from an optics standpoint. Any brand that doesn't participate in this, even if they don't believe their main market requires a vast shade range, is generally not perceived as diverse by conscious consumers in the U.S.
What's your favorite object here? I love all but my favorite is probably the lipstick portraying Zhang and his wife. It's too perfect for a Chinese heritage-focused makeup line!
1The name was inspired by one of the "four great beauties" of ancient China, Xi Shi, as described by poet Su Dongpo (Su Shi).
3For information on eyebrow styles and makeup more generally throughout the Tang Dynasty, this paper was great.
It took me way too long to return to Dream Teams, but it's back in time for Black History Month! The second installment features five more Black artists whose work I think would make fantastic beauty packaging. Sadly, since the first edition of this series in the summer of 2020 there has not been a single Black visual artist featured on a mainstream makeup brand. My pleas continue to fall on deaf ears. Since companies still aren't collaborating with Black painters/photographers/multimedia artists, I figured it may be at least somewhat useful to keep sharing the work of notable Black artists within the context of makeup. As noted previously, the artist bios are kept quite brief for now – especially because the volume of information is overwhelming – but if they ever appear on beauty packaging I will go more in-depth. And obviously I acknowledge that artist collaborations, particularly imaginary ones, won't magically solve the beauty industry's racism problem, but it's a relatively easy step towards better representation and increased visibility.
The artist: Lorna Simpson
The brand: Adwoa Beauty
Why: The collages of Lorna Simpson (b. 1961) are a perfect match for modern, gender-neutral hair care brand Adwoa Beauty.1 Both celebrate the beauty of Black and/or multicultural hair textures – Simpson through combining vintage magazine cut-outs with vibrant colors and naturally occurring phenomena, and Adwoa through normalizing natural hair. Haircare is usually beyond the Makeup Museum's purview, but the similar perspectives of the artist and brand were so obvious I had no choice but to highlight them. Adwoa Beauty was founded by Liberian-born, New York City-raised Julian Addo, who was frustrated by the lack of modern, non-gendered products for natural hair. Every item on the market was being continually updated except products for natural hair. "I didn’t see the [modernization] happening with textured haircare," she says. "The packaging and the branding looked the same in 2015 as they did in 1994…Initially, I didn’t want to start a company. I was used to working behind the scenes. So I pitched a concept [about a modernized haircare brand for textured hair] to Sally Beauty and some of my other clients, but no one really moved on the idea. That’s how Adwoa Beauty was born–out of my frustration with the industry and how it represented Black women, and from my desire to have a clean, modern, gender-neutral brand that caters to textured hair. That didn’t exist prior to us launching in October 2017."
Around 2011 Simpson stumbled across her grandmother's old copies of Jet and Ebony magazines while cleaning up her studio. Her first instinct was to preserve them in archival sleeves, but then she was inspired to make collages. Over 150 of these pieces from 2011-2017 are included in the compendium Lorna Simpson Collages. A selection of images from the Phenomenon and Earth and Sky series would be fitting for Adwoa Beauty's packaging. Pairing women from '60s and '70s issues of Ebony and Jet with geological and astrological illustrations from old science textbooks, Simpson replaces their hair with gems and galaxies. "The overall effect – both regal and otherworldly – is a joyful homage to the irrepressible stature of Black hair," notes Emma de Clercq at Infringe.
Simultaneously celestial and earthly, the works do not erase Black women's hair but rather elevate it. Black hair re-asserts itself as a locus of self-expression and beauty instead of discrimination. As author Elizabeth Alexander writes in Collages' introduction, "In Lorna Simpson’s collages 'the black and the boisterous' hair is the universal governing principle. Black women’s heads of hair are galaxies unto themselves, solar systems, moonscapes, volcanic interiors. The hair she paints has a mind of its own. It is sinuous and cloudy and fully alive. It is forest and ocean, its own emotional weather. Black women’s hair is epistemology, but we cannot always discern its codes."
The simplicity of the collages' design and attention paid to the advertising aspect are echoed in some of Adwoa Beauty's marketing. Compare Simpson's thoughts on makeovers used to sell products and the brand's images. "I try to keep the collages very simple, as well as the character, the facing, and all the tropes of advertising from those particular moments. In a lot of the advertising from the sixties and seventies, there’s this whole focus on before and after in terms of makeup and appearance. The forlorn, concerned expression is before the makeover. They are amazing portraits, even for that time, because there is a subtext of political strife in terms of the before and after during the civil rights era. You have these expressions of concern that appear in advertising that are somewhat parallel to what’s going on culturally." While Adwoa Beauty's before-and-after photos don't hold the same significance described by the artist, they are powerful in their own right for normalizing and celebrating the hair textures of people of color. "Our images and marketing can fit in anywhere that beauty products are sold," Addo says. "'Normalize Being Kinky' is one of our taglines, and we are making sure that people of color know that there’s an assortment of products for them, including in prestigious retailers like Sephora. They can walk in and shop in the same aisles, not just the ethnic aisle."
Both Simpson's work and Adwoa Beauty's products enhance rather than "correct" and express the true meaning of Black hair, and for this I believe they are meant for each other.
The artist: Richard Mayhew
The brand: Viseart
Why: The abstract landscapes of California-based artist Richard Mayhew (b. 1924) have some of the most exquisite color schemes I've ever laid eyes on. Just like the eyeshadow palettes of French brand Viseart, Mayhew's use of color is vibrant but not overpowering, and provides unusual yet harmonious shade combinations.
Mayhew is inspired by his Native American and African American heritage and chose the landscape genre to express his peoples' spiritual connection to nature. "What I do with landscapes is internalize my emotional interpretation of desire, hope, fear, and love. So, instead of a landscape, it’s a mindscape…My mindscapes are also about the healing of the long trauma that Black and native communities have experienced collectively," he says.
He does not sketch or plan his paintings; they are mostly improvised, much like the jazz he listens to while working. "I just put paint on the canvas and that’s suggestive of what will emerge," he says.
While Mayhew, an active arts advocate and teacher, has had over 40 solo exhibitions over the course of his career, his work is not as recognized as other Black artists of his era, especially compared to the ones from Spiral, a notable group of Black artists he helped establish in the 1960s. Unlike other Spiral artists, Mayhew's work isn't overtly political and does not employ figurative or narrative components. "Even though he was very much part of the movements in New York City, he doesn’t really fit that niche that some people want Black art to fit into: narrative quality, political and Civil Rights [imagery]. Because of that I think a lot of people don’t know how to address his work," says ACA Galleries curator Mikaela Sardo LaMarche. "And as a consequence, he’s been on the sidelines a bit." Adds Richard’s daughter Ina, "His contribution was different. It is spiritual. He’s taking on the spirit of the time and Civil Rights movement in tones of color."
As for Viseart, the brand was originally intended for makeup artists; most of the palettes were geared towards the needs of professionals. In the past 3-4 years, however, they've expanded their eyeshadow palette selection that skew towards the average makeup user, creating appealing color stories and textures that retain an artistic spirit yet are foolproof for regular consumers. While the color combinations are unexpected, they are tremendously pleasing and different than most of what's on the market, much like Mayhew's landscapes.
The artist: Alma Thomas
The brand: Clinique
Why: Maybe because I'm still in awe of the Alma Thomas exhibition I had the great fortune of seeing back in December, but her work is truly stunning and I would dearly love to see it on makeup packaging. Heck, I want to see it on everything. Thomas (1891-1978) taught art at public schools in DC for most of her life, only taking up painting seriously in 1960 upon her retirement from teaching. Previously she attended art classes at American University and while she painted and exhibited still lifes in group shows, it wasn't until the 1960s that she embarked on abstract color paintings. As art historian Regenia Perry explained in the 1992 book Free within Ourselves: African-American Artists in the Collection of the National Museum of American Art, "From the window of her house she enjoyed watching the ever-changing patterns that light created on her trees and flower garden. So inspired, her new paintings passed through an expressionist period, followed by an abstract one, to finally a nonobjective phase…Color was the basis of her painting, undeniably reflecting her life-long study of color theory as well as the influence of luminous, elegant abstract works by Washington-based Color Field painters such as Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and Gene Davis…Earliest to win acclaim was her series of Earth paintings — pure color abstractions of concentric circles that often suggest target paintings and stripes. Done in the late 1960s, these works bear references to rows and borders of flowers inspired by Washington’s famed azaleas and cherry blossoms. The titles of her paintings often reflect this influence. In these canvases, brilliant shades of green, pale and deep blue, violet, deep red, light red, orange, and yellow are offset by white areas of untouched raw canvas, suggesting jewel-like Byzantine mosaics."
Thomas began a second major series entitled Space, which was inspired by the moon landing in 1969. "Like the Earth series these paintings also evoke mood through color, yet several allude to more than a color reference. The majority of Thomas’s Space paintings are large sparkling works with implied movement achieved through floating patterns of broken colors against a white background." My favorite of this series is The Eagle Has Landed. (Pardon the quality of the next few photos…the lighting at the Phillips was not the best.)
Clinique has done a number of collaborations over the years, but to my knowledge, none have been with Black artists or designers. Unlike the work of some color field artists that can appear a bit somber despite their vibrant palettes, Thomas's work appears remarkably upbeat, making it an excellent match for the playful mood of Clinique. And while fragrance is not in the Museum's wheelhouse, I would absolutely buy a bottle of Happy fragrance if Thomas's work was on it, as it conveys a wonderful sense of joy (or at least, I got immense joy looking at her paintings.)
Here is a reproduction of a dress she wore to her exhibition openings, originally designed by Maceo E. McCray. Per the wall label at the Phillips, "Thomas was known as a fashionable dresser who often selected clothes that coordinated with the palette of her works. McCray's design went further, using texture and color to both complement and contrast Thomas's paintings, ensuring the artist would shine at her exhibition openings."
So I also think Thomas, with her interest in fashion, would have been in favor of her work appearing on a makeup line.
The artist: Gordon Parks
The brand: Fashion Fair
Why: Gordon Parks (1912-2006) was a truly legendary master of photography. Entirely self-taught, he purchased a camera at the age of 25, referring to it as his "choice of weapon": "I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point i had to have a camera." While Parks is best known for photojournalism, spotlighting social justice issues relating to race and class, more recently his fashion imagery has garnered attention. Along with many other outlets, Parks worked for Life, Vogue and Ebony magazines. Ebony co-founder Eunice Johnson created Fashion Fair and its accompanying line of cosmetics, so a collection featuring Gordon Parks is meant to be, especially considering both Parks and Johnson broke barriers in their respective fields. Plus, the minimal design of Fashion Fair's current packaging would make an excellent vehicle to display the quiet elegance of Parks' subjects and his equally graceful images of them.
Parks launched his photography career in 1939 at a high-end department store in St. Paul, Minnesota. He wrote in his 1990 autobiography, about Vogue: "Along with its fashion pages, I studied the names of its famous photographers—Steichen, Blumenfeld, Horst, Beaton, Hoyningen-Huené, thinking meanwhile that my own name could look quite natural among them."
Dr. Deborah Willis, professor and author of an essay from the catalog that accompanied the 2018 exhibition Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940-1950, believes an 1890 photo of Parks' mother, Sarah Ross Parks, was responsible for his interest in fashion photography and the notion of Black women asserting both their personal agency and sense of style through photography. She explains, "I imagine Gordon understood his mother through the lens of that image, his mother outside of raising children…I see this image as pivotal of what it meant to have a portrait made at that time. It allowed Sarah Ross Parks to create the personality and character of a woman who, within a 30-year period after Emancipation, and how she is using this space as a place to acknowledge not only her femininity and her sense of self as a free woman…Gordon was placing these women in this clothing in these high powered places like New York or Chicago – and seeing these spaces, they had a right to dress and be in these environments."
This photo is noted as an outtake from a 1978 Revlon shoot so we can assume Parks was responsible for photographing the Polished Ambers campaign, or at least some of it. Here's proof he was skilled at beauty photography too, which makes a collab with a cosmetics brand all the more apt.
I'm envisioning the above photos on palettes encased in heavy-duty acrylic (like NARS' Man Ray collection), as that simple yet sophisticated design would be a fitting tribute to Parks' photographic style.
The artist: Charles C. Dawson
The brand: Sweet Georgia Brown
Why (and what?!): Charles Dawson (1889-1981) was the artist and designer behind the packaging for, among other notable brands, the Chicago-based Valmor Products. Dawson essentially served as the brand's first creative director, establishing an early pop-art style that fused traditional femininity with bold sexual appeal. (Jay Jackson later took over for Dawson at Valmor.) However, the (white) owners of the company would not permit Dawson to sign his work. It wasn't until recently that Dawson was finally credited for his work for Valmor.
In a very informative article on Valmor at the Made in Chicago Museum's website, curator Andrew Clayman notes, "Though he might have been caught up in some of the cultural assimilation trends of the era—a survival requirement for some black professionals—Dawson was far from an apologist for blackness or someone running away from his heritage…his designs used sex to sell mainstream products in a way rarely seen before, with characters of ambiguous race, if not overtly black or Latino, and women who were just as pleased to seduce a man as pine for one." The article also features the insight of the "godmother of brown beauty blogging", Afrobella creator Patrice Grell Yursik. She adds: "The packaging by Charles C. Dawson spoke directly to the aesthetic of the time. There absolutely is a light-skinned ideal in his design, but the fact the products existed in a time of need and offered a glimpse of black beauty in a Eurocentric landscape makes this far from a shameful chapter. I believe the products and positioning of Valmor ultimately helped to inspire future generations of beauty entrepreneurs to create even more products for an always-underserved market, celebrating more accurate reflections of diverse beauty over time."
My fellow Gen X'ers might recall a brand called Sweet Georgia Brown from the mid-late '90s that used the same graphics as the original line owned by Valmor. But instead of catering to Black clientele, this iteration of Sweet Georgia Brown was geared towards the tween/teen set and featured lots of glitter and scented products.
So how did this happen? Well, according to the Made in Chicago Museum article, Valmor was sold to Richard Solomon, owner of RH Cosmetics, in 1985. Though most of Valmor's archives and products were thrown out (the horror! Solomon was only interested in the hair pomade), Richard's wife Myra apparently took notice of the Sweet Georgia Brown packaging, for she is credited with "revamping" Sweet Georgia Brown as a youth-focused brand.2 RH Cosmetics was sold to AM Cosmetics in December of 1996 and the sale included the Sweet Georgia Brown line.3 AM Cosmetics continued to produce it until 2003 or so.
Sadly, in all of the marketing, there was no mention of the history of the brand and zero effort to make it diverse. Not only did the fact that Sweet Georgia Brown was originally intended for Black customers go unmentioned, Dawson's role was completely unacknowledged once again. It's very probable that neither RH Cosmetics nor AM had any idea that Dawson was responsible for the graphics, and obviously diversity wasn't a priority for most cosmetic brands in the '90s, but both companies should have at least known Sweet Georgia Brown was meant for Black customers. All of this is to say that my recommendation is for a Black entrepreneur to take over the rights to the hair pomade (which is still available in some retail outlets, although it's not clear who owns it) and re-introduce Sweet Georgia Brown as a fully inclusive beauty line that ensures the public knows its origins, with Dawson's name printed on the packaging for every product. A brand new Sweet Georgia Brown website would have all of the company's history and extensive information on Dawson and his successor Jay Jackson.
What are your thoughts on these artists and the brands I've matched them with? Would they make good collabs or no?
1A year ago Simpson produced a series of collages featuring Rihanna for Essence magazine so it would seem that Fenty might be a better company match, but after exploring Simpson's work and other beauty lines, I thought a minimal hair care line made more sense for a collaboration.
2Women's Wear Daily, April 22, 2005.
3Myra Solomon sometimes used the name of her first husband, Smolev. Richard, Myra and her daughter Sydra were subsequently sued by AM for allegedly stealing trade secrets. Shortly thereafter Myra and Sydra began a new company called Just Having Fun Cosmetics, which mimicked AM's portfolio of teen/tween focused brands.
From 1947-1949, the Dorothy Gray brand ran a series of ads featuring portraits of "fascinating women". I don't know why I'm covering them given that they're all white, upper-crust socialites who for the most part didn't do much besides existing while rich, but I guess my insatiable curiosity about vintage advertising got the better of me. I was determined to find out more about these ladies and the artists who painted their portraits in the hopes of figuring out why Dorothy Gray embarked on this campaign. So with that, here are brief bios of 6 of the women and the artists, along with a couple of examples of their other work. Stay tuned for part 2 to see the other five women featured and some theories about the campaign.
We'll start with the ladies that I couldn't find much info on. First up is Mrs. John P. Labouisse (1911-1984). Near as I can figure, Mrs. Labouisse's maiden name was Olive May Moore. Both she and her husband came from prominent New Orleans families. They had one child in 1935, who passed away in 2005. I'm not sure if it's intentional, but I find it interesting that the ad copy mentions that the packaging can accommodate "the most regal boudoirs," while Olive is portrayed what appears to be a fancy peignoir or dressing gown, more suitable for the bedroom than daytime wear. Then again, I'm no fashion historian so I might be completely off base.
Alexander Brook (1898-1980) was a New York-based Realist painter known for his portraits and landscapes. While recovering from a bout of polio at the age of 12, he became interested in art. A few years later he enrolled at the Art Students League, and by the 1920s he was exhibiting at what would become the Whitney Museum. Brook was one of the most highly renowned American painters of his time, having multiple solo exhibitions across the country. Personally, I can't say I'm fond of his work. There's a sadness about his subjects that I'm not sure comes from the way he chose to paint them or if they were melancholy on their own.
In any case, Brook would often paint his first impression of his sitters to capture a truer likeness. "When I do a portrait, whether it is one of my own choice or a requested commission of someone I hardly know, I find that my first impression of the proposed sitter is usually the one I strive to paint…whenever I hold closely to my original, instantaneous observation or try to emphasize even more the qualities I saw in my first conception, I paint with greater ease and the result is more satisfactory to me. To be able to retain and paint the spirit of what was seen in my first glance gives me a freer rein to achieve a more individual result than would a careful analytical conclusion." (quoted in the Daily Oklahoman, May 29, 1949)
But perhaps what I'm interpreting as sadness is actually "sensitive character study and introspective mood," according to a 1981 re-evaluation of Brook's work in the New York Times. The article also notes that the once tremendously popular genre of World War I figurative portraits had gone out of style once abstract expression rolled in after the second World War, but made a comeback in the late 1970s and early '80s as a result of the rekindled interest in realism. Hence Brook's oeuvre being re-examined then. To my knowledge there has not been a third massive exploration of his work since the early '80s.
I really don't care what the Times or other critics say, these murals in the Clinton Federal Building are objectively somber due to both Brook's style and the subject matter. In 1939 Brook was commissioned to paint several murals under one of the New Deal art programs. These are titled "Writing the Family Letter" and "Reading the Family Letter," which depict families who were separated due to relief efforts in the Great Depression and who depended on letters to keep them emotionally connected.
Overall, while I appreciate the no-frills approach and quiet dignity with which he painted all his subjects, I didn't find Brook's style all that enthralling. But if you're so inclined you can buy his monograph.
Next we have Mrs. Stanley G. Chamberlain, formerly known as Esther Carolyn Nice. Esther was born around 1906, so that would make her about 43 in 1949 when the ad was released. I'm amused by the fact that Dorothy Gray not so subtly paired an over-40 woman with ad copy discussing how one could maintain the "precious bloom of youth" in her 40s by using their products. I wish I had some details on Esther's life besides the fact that she and Stanley had three children. Esther passed away suddenly on November 23, 1968.
There was plenty of information on the artist behind Mrs. Chamberlain's portrait, however. William Coffield Fields, III was a highly successful portrait artist, consistently painting and exhibiting his work from the early 1940s until the 1990s, when he increased his focus on local history and genealogy. A native of Fayetteville, North Carolina, Fields graduated from the fine arts program at the University of North Carolina in 1938 and later studied at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston – probably how he got the attention of the Boston-based Chamberlains. But for most of his career he divided his time between New York City and Fayetteville. In 1951 he spent 7 months in Italy, painting portraits of Pope Pius XII, Prince Ludovico Chigi, and the Prime Minister during World War I, Vittorio Orlando.
Fields believed that a good portrait didn't necessarily require technical skill; a rapport with the sitter was more important in conveying their personality. "A portrait should be an encounter. You should know something about that person when you look at it," he stated in 1980. Though he painted many well-to-do women and other notable people throughout his career, Bill seemed fairly down to earth, teaching regularly and volunteering for a number of local arts organizations. He thought being referred to as an artist was pretentious, and preferred to be called a portrait painter. Plenty of middle-upper class families commissioned him for portraits, which makes me think he charged more affordable rates than his peers or worked on a sliding scale. Coupled with the fact that there were no mentions of Esther in the society pages, I'm guessing the Chamberlains kept a low profile or perhaps were not as astronomically wealthy as some of the other ladies in this series given their choice of artist. Fields passed away in 2007, having left a vast body of historical work on Cumberland County, NC as well as his portraits (none of which I could find online, alas.)
Next we have Brooklyn-born Gertrude Gretsch Astor (1923-1999), who married multimillionaire John Jacob Astor in September 1944. While she was technically a debutante, having made her debut at a grand party in 1941, she was also described as "non-social".
After 6 years of marriage to Astor and one child, a nasty and drawn-out divorce ensued, with Gertrude citing Astor's "innumerable and shameful associations with a variety of women" as the impetus for divorce proceedings. It was, as you could imagine, quite scandalous at the time. But don't feel too bad for Ms. Gretsch, as ultimately she was provided with $3,000 (or $28,000 in 2021) per month in alimony. She eventually got remarried to Italian director/playwright Sonio Coletti in 1968. Gertrude passed away on January 16, 1999.
Walter Charles Klett (1897-1966) was primarily known not for portraits but for his figurative paintings and commercial work for magazines such as Collier's, including this racist gem of a cover. Born in St. Louis, he attended the School of Fine Arts there before heading to Chicago in 1925. Three years later he and his wife moved to New York, where he remained until his death in 1966.
Klett published a very well-received guide to figurative paintings in 1948. Said one critic, "The artist declares he is a painter of women, and he definitely prefers glamorous women, and this predilection, he believes, damns him in the eyes of contemporary painters whose brushes are moved by anything but beauty." Klett's women are indeed glamorous, but there's also a sensuality about them that borders on classic pin-up style.
Up next is Mrs. John A. Morris, formerly known as Edna Brokaw. Edna, a statuesque (she was 5'10"!) beauty with a wicked tennis game, made her debut in 1928 and married John, a Harvard graduate/stockbroker on May 27, 1942. The wealthy Morris family was known for thoroughbred horse-racing and breeding, with their all-scarlet racing silks dating back to 1840. Dorothy Gray used Edna's portrait to advertise a fairly simplified, no-nonsense skincare routine, which seems fitting for her. And the mention of "grooming" makes me think they were possibly referencing the grooming and care of the Morris' horses, which was a priority in their lives – the family actually established an equine research library at the University of Kentucky.
While she certainly enjoyed the perks of being rich, such as growing up in a mansion on 5th Avenue in New York, Edna was not interested in the socialite lifestyle. "I didn't want to be a deb. I wanted to go to college so much, but for girls like me it just wasn't done. My mother would have none of it," she said in a 1985 interview. I know, I know, let's break out the world's smallest violin, but for someone like me who, for the most part, abhors social gatherings, being forced to attend them daily as a career of sorts is my idea of hell. Before she got married, Edna worked as a nurse's aide and attended secretarial school. She refused to marry John until she had secured a job, as she needed to prove she could be self-sufficient. She was also consistently active in fundraising efforts for Girl Scouts from the 1950s until her death in January 1997 at the age of 88. I enjoy this photo from the 1985 interview in which she's wearing the same pearl necklace from her portrait nearly 40 years prior.
Jerry Farnsworth (1895-1983) was born of meager means in northern Georgia. Growing up he didn't have any real exposure to art until the age of twenty, when he attended an art exhibition for the first time. From that point on he knew he wanted to be an artist. He married Helen Sawyer in 1925 when both were art students under Charles W. Hawthorne, founder of the Cape Cod School of Art. In looking at both of their work I can definitely see the influence.
Like his contemporary Alexander Brook, Farnsworth was best known for his portraits and his style didn't change much over time. One of his personal favorites was his portrait of Martha Truman, mother of the 33rd President of the United States, Harry Truman.
Farnsworth was also recognized for his magazine covers such as this depiction of Hitler with a dog, which appeared on the cover of the March 13, 1933 issue of Time magazine.
While I think his style is a bit livelier than Brook's, Farnsworth is not my favorite of this bunch. Still, I admire his dedication to arts education – he taught at many colleges, and he and his wife set up a summer art school in Massachusetts.
Coming in at portrait no. 5, here's Mrs. Farrell Steele, formerly known as Helen Fairfax Farrell. Helen was a textbook example of a Southern belle/debutante, coming from extreme wealth on both sides of her Nashville-based family.
Just to give you an idea of the kind of money we're talking about, Helen was the heiress to the Maxwell House coffee fortune. In 1925 her father purchased an English Tudor house situated on a 2,000 acre estate and named it Crieve Hall after his family's home in Northern Ireland. The family also had their own box at horse shows, and in 1940 Helen had $2,800 worth (or $52,600 in today's currency) of jewelry stolen from the family's summer home. I'm still trying to wrap my head around having that kind of cash.
Anyway, on October 7, 1944 at Crieve Hall, Helen married George S. Steele, a Yale graduate who worked for the Foreign Economic Administration in Washington DC. Exactly a year after their wedding day, the couple had a daughter. But the marriage would not last; just a few months later, in February 1946, Helen filed for divorce, citing "mental cruelty." While initially I had zero sympathy towards Helen and her family, I do feel bad that she was shipped off to boarding schools far away from her family growing up and then had to endure a marriage, however brief, to a possibly abusive husband. As you know, divorce back then was fairly stigmatized, especially among the wealthy whose every move was recorded by the press. I'm guessing many of the marriages between rich families were business mergers more than anything else, and they probably saw it as important to keep the money in the family for future generations. The fact that Helen got out of there so quickly and the official reason makes me think George was not a nice person. Of course, this is pure speculation and I hope that wasn't the case, and it's not my intent to go spouting baseless accusations. But something seemed off. Fortunately Helen got re-married to Theodore Mentis in 1971 and remained married to him until his death in 1982. Helen passed away in 2006.
Channing ("Uncle Bunny") Weir Hare was a noted society painter shuttling between his home base in Ogunquit, Maine and Palm Beach, Florida, so it stands to reason he captured Helen's likeness. Described as the "crown prince of society portrait artists," charging $3,000-$10,000 per portrait (or $44,000 – $146,000) as well as "flamboyant," Hare was known as much for holding elaborate parties for other artists and top socialites as he was for his art. Hare was also gay, though not legally out of the closet for most of his life – he separated from his wife, whom he married in 1929, but never divorced her, remaining married (on paper, anyway) until her death in 1966.
Hare bristled at being called a society painter, though society portraits allowed him to make a good enough living to eventually purchase a grand Mallorcan palace with a butler, chef and 16 servants. As Palm Beach portrait artist Richard Banks remarked in 1990, "Channing Hare could be vicious and cruel, but he was also a terribly funny guy who would just woo those ladies. He had bought a place in Majorca and when he knocked off a portrait, he'd say, 'Well, there's another bathroom for the house.'" He was also somewhat picky about who he chose to portray. "Please don't call me [a society painter], because when they call you that, they don't take your work seriously. Besides, I'm in too many good museums…often I paint people who just interest me," he noted in 1970.
Like Fields, Hare painted many people of note, including members of European royalty and the Vanderbilts in the U.S. He also did not work from photos unless it was absolutely necessary, preferring to paint from the memory of his experience meeting the sitter. Perhaps the reason he was able to command such renown was the fact that he often embellished the attractiveness of his sitters, painting them in the most flattering way even if it meant stretching reality a bit. "Channing's gift was to make people look their very best…he was very elegant himself, and a teensy bit snobbish. He was a portraitist, but he once told me, 'I don't like people, but I like some people'…with Channing, you never knew if he was telling the truth," reminisced former Palm Beach art dealer James Hunt Barker in 1997.
While portraits were his focus, Hare occasionally dabbled in still-life and Surrealism.
Hare passed away on February 12, 1976, leaving behind his adopted son Stephen "Stevie" Hare, who also became a painter.
Last one for today! Speaking of flamboyant, I wonder if Dorothy Gray chose to feature their "Flamboyant" shade to complement the bold red dress and lip color worn by Mrs. John W. Eiman, formerly known as Daisy Biddle.
On June 4, 1948, Daisy married John, a doctor (pathologist) who graduated from Princeton. Having grown up near Philly I can tell you the Biddles are very old money, and the places mentioned in the news coverage on Daisy (Bryn Mawr, Haverford, etc.) are part of what's known as the Main Line, a.k.a. one of the wealthiest areas in the U.S. But Daisy was not just your average rich socialite. She attended the prestigious Moore College of Art and Design, and later in life had her paintings included in several local exhibitions. I'm so disappointed I couldn't locate any photos of her work! While she hasn't updated her Facebook page since 2014, I couldn't find an obituary so I'm hoping she's actually still alive, enjoying her retirement in Vero Beach, Florida. 🙂
Born in Chicago in 1899, Roy Spreter arrived in the Philadelphia area in 1926 and remained there until his death in July 1967. While he was largely recognized for commercial illustration, later in life his talent as a portraitist was better acknowledged. Spreter created heartwarming, family-oriented ads and covers for the likes of Log Cabin syrup and the Woman's Home Companion, very much in the Norman Rockwell vein of illustration.
Interestingly, here's a 1927 portrait of Joel O. Cheek, grandfather of Helen Fairfax Farrell.
While I find Spreter's portraits to be much less saccharine and more visually appealing than his commercial work, I think it would have been very interesting to have Daisy paint a self-portrait and use that for the Dorothy Gray ad.
There are 5 ladies left which I will feature eventually. Right now I'll continue pondering why Dorothy Gray launched this campaign, how they chose the women they did, why they didn't use Hollywood starlets like other brands, etc. Obviously Dorothy Gray was trying to appeal to upper class customers and define good taste by linking their products with fine art and well-to-do ladies, but there must be more to it than that.
Here are some questions for you: which woman of these 6 would you liked to have lunch with, if any? And which artist would you commission to paint your portrait? While I think the vast wealth gap would make it impossible to befriend any of these women, I like to think I'd get along with Daisy since we could talk about art. And while I enjoy Hare's portrait style the most, I'd hire Bill Fields since he seemed the nicest. 🙂
Stay tuned for part 2, when I'll discuss the rest of the ladies' portraits and some lingering questions about the series.
Welcome to a very special edition of Makeup as Muse! On this day 45 years ago1, artist Claes Oldenburg's Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks was re-installed at Yale University. This sculpture has always fascinated me and I wanted to find out more about it. There's a ton to unpack here so away we go!
There is quite a long history behind this piece. Oldenburg had previously used lipstick as a central element in a work he created during his first visit to London in 1966. According to the Tate, Oldenburg had designed a single oversized lipstick for Piccadilly Circus intended to rise and fall with the tide. He also made a collage of a postcard of Piccadilly Circus and a cut-out of magazine advertisement for lipsticks. The lipstick "monuments" in both pieces were designed to replace the statue of Eros. "To replace the Victorian statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus with lipsticks lifted from an advertisement was, therefore, to update one vision of sexuality with another." Oldenburg remarked at the time, "For me, London inspired phallic imagery which went up and down with the tide – like mini-skirts and knees and the part of the leg you can see between the skirt and the boot, like the up-and-down motion of a lipstick, like the cigarette butt…" I'll discuss the "phallic" nature of Oldenburg's lipstick later but for now let me just say that I find it very off-putting when men presume lipsticks are somehow reminiscent of male anatomy. Can't a lipstick just be a lipstick?
As soon as I read that Oldenburg had cut the lipsticks out of an ad I went on the prowl to see if I track it down. Alas, I did not succeed in identifying what lipsticks were used. The bullet shapes and cases look close to those of Max Factor, Yardley, Avon (I don't even know if Avon was available in the UK) and Clairol lipsticks that were sold at the time, but weren't an exact match. Coty's lipsticks seemed to be the most similar.2
Anyway, Oldenburg continued expanding on the idea of a large lipstick sculpture intended to be a monument of some kind. By 1969, the basic design for his sculpture at Yale was sketched in a drawing and shared later in a magazine published by Yale architecture students to celebrate the gift of the sculpture to the university. I find it interesting that Oldenburg changed the lipstick bullet to a beveled shape rather than the conical ones he used for the collage of Piccadilly Circus. Oldenburg also notes that while the lipstick had become part of his visual language3, the concept for the sculpture was partially influenced by Vladimir Tatlin's Monument to the Third International tower. "It became very strong in my mind at the end of the sixties. It led more or less directly to Lipstick."4
In early 1969 the artist mobilized a group of faculty and students at his alma mater, who called themselves the Colossal Keepsake Corporation, to assist in the creation of a mixed media monument that would serve as a form of protest against the Vietnam War as well as a platform/gathering area for public speaking and student demonstrations. The group, lead by architectural student Stuart Wrede, raised roughly $5,000 to build Lipstick and kept the plans hidden from Yale officials. The lipstick bullet was constructed of inflatable vinyl and required a mechanical pump to extend it to its full height, while the tank portion at the bottom was made out of painted plywood. The tube itself was meant to unfold telescopically. The end result, weighing 3,500 pounds and rising 24 feet, was unveiled in front of Yale's Beinecke Library on the first day of final exams: May 15, 1969.
In the selected location, the sculpture overlooked not only a World War I memorial but also the university's President's office. Talk about sticking it to the man!
So what did the sculpture mean for both the Yale community and the public at large? There are many interpretations and I will do my best to summarize them as succinctly as possible. First and foremost, Lipstick is considered Oldenburg's way of playing with traditional gender iconography. In his 1969 "Notes", the artist remarks that Lipstick is a "bisexual object". The lipstick is a symbol of femininity as well as consumerism, while the tank, through its connotations with war and the military, is a stand-in for masculinity. By combining these stereotypes into a singular entity, one could argue it's a symbol of gender equality. But the way the elements are juxtaposed indicates additional meanings. The fact that the lipstick is sitting on top of the tank, in a sense dominating it, was occasionally construed as a feminist stance, especially given that Yale had announced plans to accept women students starting that fall.
On the other hand, as noted in his previous lipstick collage, some perceived the lipstick bullet as a phallic object. Bridging these interpretations was the underlying subtext of the Vietnam War. "[The] large lipstick tube is phallic and bullet-like, making the benign beauty product seem masculine or even violent. The juxtaposition implied that the U.S. obsession with beauty and consumption both fueled and distracted from the ongoing violence in Vietnam." However, given that in its original form the lipstick bullet was often deflated, perhaps it was Oldenburg's tongue-in-cheek way of dismantling the gender binary. The flaccid lipstick bullet no longer wields the same masculine power it did when, um, fully upright. "The wonderful thing about it is that it will never stay up," he said in a recent interview with the New York Times.
However you interpret Lipstick in terms of gender, it's undeniable that it simultaneously represented a sort of a joke as well as a place to protest. The student group that organized the sculpture's acquisition maintained that Lipstick was intended as nothing more than a silly monument. According to Bust magazine, "Members of the Colossal Keepsake Corporation vehemently denied the sculpture was either peaceful or militant, saying that they’d simply wanted to thwart the administration by creating something ridiculous to rally around. An event in and of itself." The protests that took place on campus throughout 1969 attest to the fact that while humorous, Lipstick was also meant to be a site of political action for a variety of important causes – of course protesting the war in Vietnam, but also feminist rallies, student strikes and Black Panther gatherings.
Oldenburg himself confirms the dual meanings. "There’s an element of humor in whatever I do…but it also can be turned into something pretty serious." This goes back to his 1961 manifesto in which he claimed, "I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum…I am for an art that imitates the human, that is comic, if necessary, or violent, or whatever is necessary." In a 1996 interview with The Guardian, he cites Lipstick as being one of his more political pieces. "That one did have a political purpose to it; I think it was a lot to do with the fact that it was commissioned by the students…I would do works for various causes, and in that sense I've always been political."
The story of this remarkable piece doesn't end in 1969. Lipstick was removed by Oldenburg in March the following year and sent to the New Haven-based Lippincott metal foundry for repairs, which was the company that had fabricated the few metal components of the original sculpture. Obviously, the other materials were not the sturdiest and couldn't withstand the elements or the frequent usage by students. The wood of the base had become warped and rotted, covered in graffiti and posters, and the metal had started to rust. In 1971 a new plan was hatched by Yale art history faculty as well as the art gallery director to restore and bring the sculpture back to campus. "The original members of the Colossal Keepsake Corporation voted to donate the work to the Yale Art Gallery. With the gallery making a permanent loan of the work to Morse, the lipstick was restructured by Lippincott, at a reported cost of $14,000. (Mr. Oldenburg himself donated a lithograph edition of the Lipstick, with the proceeds of its sale to provide a permanent fund for maintenance.)"
On October 17, 1974, another version of Lipstick was installed at Morse College. This one maintained the dimensions of the original sculpture but was constructed of hardier Cor-Ten steel.
The installation was quite a celebration, and it solidified Lipstick as a bona fide piece of artwork. Here's a fun little excerpt from an account of the evening's festivities by the New York Times.
"To music, speeches and some exuberant student shenanigans, a peripatetic monument made a comeback on the campus of Yale University last night. Kingman Brewster, Yale's president, who reportedly is not captivated by the lipstick's esthetic appeal, was not on hand for the ceremony. 'It's a great event. The first time, we didn't have music,' said Mr. Oldenburg, who, with rousing accompaniment by the Yale University Band, addressed the crowd in his stocking feet from a perch on the lipstick's base. “I'm taking off my shoes to demonstrate that the piece should be treated with some respect since, among other things, you'll find it useful as a speaking platform. And hope you'll take your shoes off when you do.' Though its sponsors denied that their intention was political, it was seen at the time by many students as an anti‐war monument and also a refreshing dig at Yale's stuffiness, both architectural and social…Mr. Scully, an art and architectural historian, took a long, admiring look at it. 'You notice how that orange color brings down the blue of the sky?' he said. 'And how the form makes you read the verticals of the Morse tower?' Later Mr. Oldenburg, surrounded by students, said he was glad the work was 'now a qualified art object.' 'Lots of people got so involved in the content they didn't see the piece as a form,' he said. 'I also like the fact that it now embodies a history, like the obelisk in Central Park.' And, gazing fondly up at the rocketlike structure, he added, 'I think it will be very uplifting.'" Indeed!
While there has been a recent effort to move the sculpture back to its original, more prominent location on campus, Oldenburg is content with Lipstick's current site, where it continues to inspire students today.
Naturally I feel the need to share my thoughts on Lipstick. I concur that it's two things at once: a vehicle intended to help affect serious social change as well as a sort of gag artwork. While I haven't seen it in person, I imagine Lipstick looks quite majestic and powerful rising above the plaza. At the same time I bet I would snicker walking by it – the inherent silliness of oversized objects never fails to make me giggle. However, I'm not really on board with the outdated, gendered meanings associated with Lipstick. If we accept the lipstick/tank to read as stand-ins for women/men, it does seem as though the tube is stomping all over traditional masculinity, and thus could be interpreted as a feminist statement or the rise of women's rights. But I feel that lipstick shouldn't, in 2019, still be a marker of femininity or women, as I believe makeup is for everyone regardless of gender. Plus dominating or defeating men isn't what feminism is about anyway – it's not an "us vs. them" mentality, we just want to be equal. I'd also like to take the notion of the lipstick as phallic symbol completely out of the conversation. I understand there is a vast history behind this concept and that it's still being used to sell lipstick. But once again, I don't think lipstick should be a gendered or hyper-sexualized object in this day and age. To acknowledge that a lipstick's design can be sexy is one thing; to interpret it as a substitute for a phallus is something else. Perhaps 50 years ago it made more sense.
Overall, I think Oldenburg's Lipstick is an important artwork that captures the turbulent political atmosphere of the '60s while also serving as a reminder not to take art, or even ourselves, too seriously.What do you think about this sculpture?
1 This post was supposed to be published way back on May 15 to mark the 50th anniversary of the original installation, but of course nothing is going according to plan this year so I had to post it on a different anniversary of the sculpture…and even that was late so I had to massively back-date it. Sigh.
2 While I couldn't discern what lipsticks were used in the collage for the earlier Lipstick collage, the finished sculpture drew a comparison to a specific brand: the 1974 New York Times article mentions Lipstick's "Tangee-like tip of glowing orange". Still, none of the bullets I could find in Tangee ads seemed to have Lipstick's beveled shape.
3 I couldn't find an installation date, but apparently Oldenburg created another gigantic lipstick sculpture for the opera in Frankfurt, Germany. It's interesting to compare this one, the Lipstick at Yale, and the earlier collage to see how they interact with each other and how they can be perceived as a cohesive body of work. In short, Oldenburg's lipsticks don't exist in individual vacuums. The Tate explains it better than I can:
"A sculptor who moves between performance and graphic art, Oldenburg treats his work as a totality in which key themes and motifs interweave in a variety of media. Taken as a whole, his graphic works represent a number of themes that have structured his practice throughout his career (see, for example, System of Iconography – Plug, Mouse, Good Humor, Lipstick, Switches 1970–1, Tate P07096). These motifs range across media, from performance and sculpture to the graphic arts, and include a shifting sense of scale, size and location, as well as exchanging hard for soft and organic for machine-made materials. Oldenburg sees this activity not as a series of discrete and isolated pursuits, but as a totality through which he engages with and represents the reality that he encounters every day. As the historian Martin Friedman explained in 1975:
Oldenburg’s art is a totality. The themes, each manifested in different media, are intimately related. Detailed drawings of objects, hastily scrawled notes, fragments of poetry, cardboard models, muslin and vinyl soft sculptures, and the recent large industrially fabricated steel pieces are elements of a total view. His ‘performance pieces’ that continued into the mid-1960s and combined people, objects and environments are essential to this view. (Friedman in Oldenburg: Six Themes, exhibition catalogue, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis 1975, p.9.)
Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks – and the larger body of graphic works of which it is an example – represents one piece within a constantly evolving oeuvre; a ‘total’ work that responds, in multiple media, to the variety and ephemerality of the everyday, material world."
4 The Guardian, May 24, 1996. Accessed at newspapers.com.
5 You can see more of the installation in this video around the 35-second mark.
Alexander Bogardy
If you haven't already checked out Beauty and the Cat's blog, I highly recommend it – not only is this duo chock full of useful information on beauty, they're hilarious to boot. A few months ago they posted some very interesting makeup drawings on their IG stories and naturally I had to find out more about them. After Beauty and the Cat assured me they weren't going to write about them and gave me their blessing to do so (I don't want to steal other bloggers' potential content!) I decided to forge ahead with a post on the illustrated makeup guides of Alexander Bogardy (1901-1992). The self-taught Bogardy has been classified as both an outsider artist and a folk artist, which is evident in his simplistic style.
Bogardy was born in Hungary, most likely in 1901*. His family came to the U.S. when he was a small child and settled, of all places, right here in Baltimore. He was a man of many talents, studying violin at the Peabody Conservatory (which is a block away from Museum headquarters!) in the 1920s, and in the '30s he had switched to boxing, becoming a prize fighter known as "The Baltimore Kid". By the '40s he had moved to DC to study mechanical engineering at George Washington University and worked as a machinist in the U.S. Naval Gun Factory. Unfortunately, crippling arthritis forced him into early retirement in 1952. It was during this time that Bogardy began taking painting and cosmetology classes, as he was encouraged by his doctors to continue doing some light activity with his hands to stave off further deterioration from the arthritis. While it's not certain if he actually worked at a salon, he certainly cut and colored the hair of his close friends and family, and often gave away his paintings to them. A lifelong devout Catholic – he attended mass every single day – most of his work depicted Biblical stories and religious figures. Personally, I'm an atheist who never had any interest in religious imagery (despite having somehow attended two Jesuit universities – go figure), but I'm struck by the female figures in Bogardy's paintings. The women are usually shown sporting full-on makeup, brightly painted fingernails and perfectly coiffed hair, reflecting his fascination with beauty rituals.
In 1962 Bogardy completed a booklet on hair styles and general hair care entitled "The Hair and its Social Importance". It served as both a hair care guide and an outline of his cosmetology accomplishments, including his diploma from Warflynn Beauty College in DC and a letter from the Clairol Institute regarding a hair coloring competition he had entered a decade earlier. He didn't win, but just the fact that he had received any type of correspondence following up on the competition made him believe he was an award-winning hair color expert, and only served to intensify his joy of sharing his cosmetology expertise with others. As historians Margaret Parsons and Marsha Orgeron note in this article in Raw Vision magazine, "It is certainly a feature of the art of Bogardy’s self-styling that he perceived recognition in so many guises, and that he derived so much apparent pleasure and pride from sharing with others an appreciation of his work in the applied crafts of cosmetology." They also speculate that part of Bogardy's interest in cosmetics came from his Hungarian heritage. "Born in 1902, he was about the same age as two American beauty tycoons of Hungarian origin, Erno Laszlo and Estée Lauder. The distinctive successes of these two, who were both from working-class immigrant families, would have appealed to Bogardy’s sense of ethnic pride and upward mobility."
After some 20-odd years of painting and illustrating, sometime in the 1970s, Bogardy abandoned his artistic pursuits to take up flamenco dancing. It makes sense given how diverse his interests were, and the fact that he comes across as fairly eccentric. Speaking of which, let's get to the makeup illustrations, shall we? According to the Smithsonian, where I was able to gather all the images, these illustrations were completed sometime between 1960 and 1970 and consisted of pencil drawings on 11" x 14" paper. They were divided into five sections showing five basic face shapes, and were further broken down into makeup categories – brows, mascara, eyeshadow and liner, foundation, powder, lip color, and blush, highlighter and contour placement – and provided detailed instructions for each facial type. At the top of each face type illustration Bogardy writes a short thought on female beauty, and at the bottom explains how to identify a particular face shape. While the face shapes differ, the eyebrow advice on each side is the same: "To find where the brows are to start, hold a straight line up from the nose on either side and remove stragglers in the middle. Pluck brows from below. The termination of the brow toward the temple must not reach past the line of observation drawn from the tip of the nose to the outer corner of the eye and continue upward beyond the end of the brow. This point of intersection where the line of observation crosses the eyebrow is therefore the length of the brow." Interestingly, this advice is more or less still prescribed today – you can find where your brows should start and end by lining up a pencil on the side of your nose.
Here's the "circular type face":
The "rhythmic diamond type face":
The "symphonic rectangular type face":
The "melodious square type face":
And finally, the "Romantic Inverted Triangle type face":
The drawings are a pleasure to behold, with the technicality and precision of their lines demonstrating Bogardy's previous experience in engineering. This is a bit of a contrast to the messy, sometimes confusing prose surrounding them. Though it's neatly rendered, as well as being historically useful in that it might shed some additional light onto beauty schools' curricula during the '50s, overall the text reads like a beauty- and religion-inspired word salad. Spiritual or mystical references are scattered throughout basic beauty tips. As Parsons and Orgeron put it, "Delicate disembodied hands hold small brushes and apply make-up to mannequins. Around the edges are animated and often incoherent lessons on female beauty, godliness and the finer points of cosmetic application." I'm glad I'm not the only one who couldn't quite grasp what he was trying to say! Bogardy began each section of the beauty notebook with drawings entitled "propitious and serene countenance of providential. sequel". I honestly have no idea what he what that means – perhaps it was an opening prayer for a book of makeup psalms. The rest of the text on these pages addresses the features and makeup that will be discussed in the coming sections.
"Eyelashes: the prancing the dancing and gliding admonition of youth, the manifestation of joyful and hilarious entity convey forth envious intensity of astonishment in its blaze of enthusiastical beauty."
"Eyebrows: A vivacious design of nobleness in the accentuation and the grandeur of the eye in quest of endearment in the field of esthetic faculty."
"Eyeshadow: the gracious and dignified ornamentation heads symbolism of external evidence of confiding in the ostentation of perspicuous beauty."
"Eyeliner: heighlights [sic] and dramatizes the eye in a grotesque illusion of flight the youthful significance of tender years to glow in the evening and glitter throughout the night."
"Lips: Relaxed lips reflect a picture on which to meditate a medly [sic] of vibrant colors, the stimulating emotion formulate a decisive allure in encouragement to feminity and the furtherance in lineation of lip beauty."
"Facial contour: in the summarization of the countenance of milady correlate to achieve the distinctiveness of portrayal to emulate your imported perfection in the beautiful design of the face."
"The assemblage of vigoration, even though by modification yet it is the doctrine of enlightenment to augment or diminish the augur passion for a tenacious existance [sic] in the world of the beautiful."
For your reading pleasure I have also transcribed most of the lengthy text for the makeup categories – thank goodness the Smithsonian offers a zoom feature so I could get up close. This was not nearly as painstaking as I imagine it was for Bogardy to write out the same text for each and every drawing. At first I thought he had traced it somehow, but upon further inspection it looks like he wrote out the same text for each individual illustration, changing only a few sentences related to face shape.
Let's start at the top of the face with the brows and work our way down the face. The text at the top for each one reads: "Eyebrows the arch of beauty, the setting character of the face, its revealing charm add untold and neverending joy to the make-up, in the presentation of beautiful facial lines. Since its great importance creates determination in your expression it must indeed add to the characteristic in the beautification of the face and further add sublimity to the countenance; beautifully arched eyebrows accentuate to the lovliness [sic] of your forehead, the revelation of your personality the irresistable [sic] magnetism the captivating power to eliviate [sic] and achieve beauty in facial transformation far removed from your fondest dream. One look at your artistically shaped brows will invite another and most certainly a delightfully furtive look and lo, the deliverance of a beauty into the arms of beau monde."
"Feminine allure means make-up in its entirety a beautiful figure together with make-up, so artistically blended as to modulate a peerless extravaganza, therefore, the eyebrow make-up, eyebrows should start at a point and above and even with the eye duct and the eyebrows terminate at the line of observation, drawn from the flare of the nose to the outside corner of the eye and upward to the temple. To be in unison with the above paragraph you must have natural brow line for it is the eyebrows which give that authentic and picturesque expression to the face. Use dark brown brow pencil on dark, red and naturally black brows, use light brown on blond brows. Sharpen your brow pencil with a razor blade, trace brows with a short sketchy hairlike stroke, to assume brow lashes; after penciling, brush your brows gently with an eyelash brush to soften the brow line and should follow your natural line."
The text on the right side provides brow instructions for that particular face shape, while the left side drawing indicates the measurements for the brow arch. I adore how scientific and precise the diagram is.
Next up is eyeliner. Top and left side text: "The serenade for our beautiful women is something magical in transforming an already pretty face to a re-dedicated beautiful countenance of perfection through the glorious enchantment of colors in make-up. It is indeed a resplendent presentation to dedicate this asignment [sic] to the lining of the eye or eyeliner, it is so called for it has a tendency to increase or decrease the space of the eyes to afford accent and to become a mark of distinction and indeed to enhance the eye and to further add brilliancy and beauty for daytime and evening wear. The dramatic touch of colors for the eyeliner may be blue black; brown or charcoal, green or match the color of the mascara."
"Eyeliner is a mark of beauty which gives prominence to the eye, it accentuates eyelashes and outlines the eyes in such a manner as to give it everlasting spark, fire and warmth, the governor of the inner feeling and indeed visible traces of charm. The eyeliner brings forth by means of this beautiful eye marking artistically applied to the upper eyelid at the very base of the lashes; this eyeline addition is so pronounced as to accomplish the objective in alterations in facial lines through illusion. The action movement you may observe above in the application of color to the eyelid to form the eyelining, and also showing the eyelid being held taut to allow for a clean and fine eyelining. Note: the termination of the eyeliner is upward and reflects extra eyelashes and concludes a photographic medium."
"Since memory serves beauty correctly with beatitude and the elevation of thought to dignified outlook of a new and astute personality through the noble art of eyelining which places great significance upon the eye as a whole and certainly the face exhibits magnificence and since an eyeliner emphasizes your eye in such a magnitude as to accentuate the lashes and outline the eyes care must be taken as to how this beautiful addition of eyelining must be placed so as to bring forth the richness the softness and brilliance of the eyes. In the classification of type faces the eyeliner plays an influential nobleness in the eye make-up, therefore this great mark of beauty significantly outlined in the scope of this phrase, the study and application of the eyeliner, the distinguished mark of embellishment."
This time the individualized instructions are on the left side of the drawing.
Moving onto eyeshadow, here's the text at the top: "Glamor an artifice of glorification, mistified [sic] by the magic touch of color nourished by imagination and placed high upon the scale of beauty, through the medium of optical illusion, thereby improving upon the gift of nature. She alters her face with paints and powder, lighting her face and a pinkish touch she adds and behold she darkens her brows and brightens her lids; therefore the ladylike look is certainly high fashion, for it depends on flawless grooming for that smooth, young and luminous look effervescence of the eyeshadow which creates the illusion of depth and expresses your mood. We cannot stress the point to [sic] strongly and to enumerate an eyeshadow to enhance the color of the eyes to compliment the eyelashes and to make your eyes what you want them to be, an illusion of beauty of charm and of course the window of endearment and beau ideal for naturally yet flattering look of a modern girl."
"Do not extend eyeshadow beyond line of observation, draw from the outer corner of the eyes to end of eyebrow covering entire eyelid. Apply eyeshadow 1/8 inch away from the inner corner of eye duct along the top of eyelashes with an upward motion and blend sidewise useing [sic] a small brush if you prefer one which indeed is a good practice."
"The chick [sic] face technique of applying eyeshadow. Apply eyeshadow with your little finger then sponge pat over the shadowed area to achieve that subtlety accent that is shadow gives eyes more depth, emphasis and color. To elaborate therefore; with your little finger place a thin layer along the lashes as shown. Now spread upward and outward just to the tip of the eyebrows graduating the shade from dark tone upward to a lighter tone; immediately the eyes become colorful, larger and radiant. Experiment: it is good experience and excellence in grooming."
For daytime wear Bogardy recommended green, grey, violet, blue and brown depending on eye color ("used sparingly"), and advised adding a hint of metallic glam for nighttime: a "silver tint" for green or blue eyes and gold for brown or hazel.
"A delicate issue is at hand when applying brown eyeshadow for its application is intricate; to distribute a heavy layer of eyeshadow a hurried or unskilled method will most certainly age the face, therefore; in a skillfull [sic] manner apply a delicate tint of brown from the upper from the upper half of the eyelid to the eyebrows; then use a green or blue as indicated above on the chart and spread from the lashes and lower lid and blend with brown eyeshadow of the upper lid. A systematic arrangement of placing eyeshadow, is to smooth liquid foundation on eyelid first, then the shadow then dust on a little powder. This tones down the color and keeps eye lashes from smearing, assuring a firm and beautiful eyeshadow make-up."
Next up are the lashes. "There is nothing like knowing you look your loveliest to arouse in you a holiday spirit. Make-up can do a lot to make such feeling possible; therefore, the simple steps in mascara application create an extra dramatic and vibrant plea of suplication [sic]. To apply mascara, moisten a brush for mascaras finest hour of loveliness with water, remove excess and rub over a cake of mascara until the bristless [sic] are covered. Now brush the upper lashes from roots to tips, hold brush against lashes in an upward curve for a minute or so for setting it in position; for the final movement, use second clean and dry brush to even the color and to separate each hair."
The instructions for each face shape are provided in the lower left.
"The eyelashes will appear longer if you apply mascara as pictured. Use an ordinary tea spoon and bend at the base of the elliptical form; now place the edge between the upper and lower lash closeing eye. Wet brush and apply mascara from above lashes, forming the curvature to the lashes, open eyes, and retouch tips of eyelashes." Has anyone ever tried the spoon trick? I've always used a regular eyelash curler.
The right side text consists of some very wordy instructions for simple mascara application: "A great statement is held to an equally great esteem and great indeed are the uttered words of the blessed that a pretty face is the fortune of the girl possessing it, however skillful use and knowledge of make-up in the symmetrical arrangement will invariably achieve for you the desired resultant from careful application of color in the present asignment [sic] of mascara make-up. Therefore in useing [sic] cream mascara press the color from the tube on a clean dry brush, now brush on the upper lash from close to the roots up and out to encourage lashes to curl in that manner with just a touch on the lower lashes. A second film of mascara will give them added thickness. Seperate [sic] the lashes allowing a more natural appearance. Now remove excess mascara with a clean and dry brush."
"The summer night dreams bring forth another melodious day, the symphonic color of the fields, the animating glow of the leaves the scent of the flowers and fragrance of beauty have no other desire but to fulfill itself whether it is shown proudly out in the chords of variation of tender application of mascara, its warmth apparently will infuse a feeling of self-confidence and optimism. Thunderstorms make us particularly restless and irritable. The spirits rise in summer and the outlook of our beautiful women show forth the creation of beauty to intrigue femininety [sic]. As autumn changes leaves to the colors of make-up so mascara bewails the fact that a not too luxuriant eyelashes may be compensated by the ornamentation of applied mascara." Okey dokey.
And now we're onto the face, starting with foundation. "The mastery of any art requires tecnique [sic] therefore tecnique [sic] is reached through practice in the use of the hands and color selection by the eyes as directed by the thoughtful mind. The face may be made to look larger or smaller through the use of proper make-up. The types of base which conforms and does justice to your face is here outlined. The cream base which requires great care in its application and since lanolin is immersed in its base it is beneficial for dry skin. Pan-cake having cream base is good for touching up the initial make-up and to cover large pores and blemishes; use a fine grained wet sponge which caters to oily skin and blends color uniformly. Liquid foundation usually good for all skin types exclude where oiliness is extreme. Before useing [sic] liquid foundations shake bottle well so that colors are fully mixed, then place a small portion on the forehead, cheeks, nose, chin and neck and blend, useing [sic] an upward stroke from deep neckline to the hairline. Liquid make-up produces an even tone in flattery a radiant finish and beautiful coverage of lines and blemishes."
Bogardy's foundation application tips (I was getting really tired of typing it all out so I just did screenshots of these).
Next, Bogardy advises on the application of face powder. Top text: "The Romantic, the Rhythmic, The Melodious delicacy is music in the making, which brings forth the gentle touch of femininity through the glorious touch of make-up as applied to the face and neck; therefore, to be in a holiday mood means looking your lovliest [sic], the following pages show exactly how through optical illusion, glory of placing together skillfully the combination of colors and the natural disposition of powder. Now observe, correct powder is essential; in its determination consider the patron's age, coloring and whether it is for daytime or evening wear. Powder weight depends on skin type, for dry skin use a light weight powder for normal skin use medium weight powder, for very oily skin use heavyweight powder. In its distribution to the face and neck be sure that the powder is visible throughout the face and neck area; this is called powdering movement, which is followed by the removal of the excess powder, which in turn is called the powdering off movement. Therefore, the charm of music, the elegence [sic] of Romance, the Gayety [sic] of Glamour is yours indeed, by the mere investment of but a precious few moments in the glorification of Highlight, Shadow, Rouge and of course the Majestic Revelation of Powder." That's certainly a spirited way of looking at face powder, yes?
The text on the right side includes useful application tips for, ahem, mature women – don't want that powder getting caught in all your wrinkles! "The choosing of powder may be obtained as follows: stand in a strong light and by applying powder to one side of your face you notice that it melts or blends into your skin as if it were your own color, it brings forth a cleaner and an exquisite fine look it gives a lift in your skin life, it tones down irregular red spots, the purpose of the powder therefore is to have the make-up firmly fixed and sheen removed. Powder is used in successive order as after highlights, shadow and rouge, use powder in abundance with a generous pad of cotton loosly [sic] sprinkled there on and pat in well leaving a finished look and blending well along the edges, with powder the same shade as the powder base do not rub the excess powder, but brush lightly and firmly with a soft brush made exclusively for this purpose. It is important that you brush in the direction of the hair growth on the face brushing gently until all sign of powder seems to have disappeared, care must be taken when brushing over wrinkles, to make certain that it is gliding smoothly over the surface and the cavity of the wrinkled area in which case you gently pull apart fine lines and powder to avoid creases at the eye region. Pull apart laugh lines gently at the mouth area and powder. At the neck area you do likewise gently pull apart fine lines and powder. Now with a cotton pad saturated with cold water gently press cotton pad to the area of the face and neck, this moistening movement will firmly establish your make-up. The finishing touch is executed by wetting sponge and you immediately squeeze dry. With this freshly squeezed sponge blot off excess moisture."
"The approach to beauty is a necessity rather than luxury. The woman's role in the home and business demand that she bring forth through the art of optical illusion her natural color as much as possible. The professional beauty of yesterday was the envy of young and old is forever gone as every smart girl accepts make-up as a daily routine. She certainly accepts the chores as a girl from Heaven, for modern makeup is sheer magic, as the finished makeup is the dream of youth, the charm of glamour and the exciting touch of a new look, as grace can be gained by thinking; therefore nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it that way; immaculate and perfectly put together. Now let us see, pleasure is a great beauty treatment in itself for fun places gleam in your eyes adds color to your cheeks, gives your face a lift in an appealing manner. Worry the opposite to pleasure, places not only wrinkles in your face and neck but strains two thirds of the muscles of your face; therefore sagging envelopes the face and neck area."
The next section is particularly interesting as it reveals the secrets of old-school contouring and highlighting through the use of lighter or darker foundation. Top text: "Like a musical score, make-up cannot be thought of in terms of words and no amount of words can convey beauty to the face unless by painstaking application of color hither and yon. Since our aim is to bring out all the good points of the face and to balance the features as in the Circular Type face as may be observed in the diagram, through the principles of optical illusion or the perfection in the placement of colors to such a high degree of satisfaction as to promote a great delight even to the most critical influential fashion critic. Therefore to bring out a feature and to make it seem more important use a light shade of foundation as it will create highlights. To minimize a certain feature of the face or by transforming the face to a lesser degree of importance use a dark shade of foundation as the darker tone illusions. Remember that if you are useing [sic] rouge over the foundation base, make sure that you blend out the tell tale edges thoroughly so that the formation of visible irregular lines disappear." The bottom text reads, "In short: the vision of an unreal image or in make-up, is is the most important essence, the essentials of optical illusion, which creates beauty; while unreal nevertheless, it is beautiful beyond the scope of imagination. Now let us observe; a wide and natural looking mouth will also by appearance seem to reduce the width of the chin. If you have hollow cheeks, place rouge above hollows and blend back towards to temples. The fact that you have used two shades of make-up foundation should never be evident. Blend the outer edge into the other until there is no sign of one shade blending into the other shade, only the beauty of the rainbow remains radiance of light and the intrigant [?} beauty of the shadow. A heavy jawline will look more feminine when you blot out the corners with a dark shade of base."
Again, I was getting too tired to type up all the text, but I've linked to each one so you can zoom in to see the advice for each face type.
I saved the lips for last. Again, Bogardy emphasizes the importance of lip color as another tool for balancing the rest of the facial features. Top text: "There are many things in Heaven and Earth to be showerd [sic] upon us, but behold the tantamount and beautiful coverage of the lips by color to lament to a fervent capricious feeling of glory through the symetrical [sic] and balancing movement of lip make-up. Therefore the very beautiful coloring or lip make-up will always show the way to a consoling way of our gracious desires which is indeed a divine interposition and an earthly admiration."
"Using a tube of lip rouge press a tiny bit on a smooth and hard surffaced [sic] object and work into the brush. Now star with your upper lip at the center and work out in both directions with an even and unbroken line. The lower lip may be outlined, but keep within the natural line of the lips to form a beautifully arched lip line from one corner to the other. If the shape of the mouth may not be defenite [sic] apply darker correction line with lip brush now dust a very thin film of powder over the lips then blot off excess with a wet cotton pad; the lips must be dry in order to fill in with a lighter color, now allow lip rouge to set a minute, then blot on tissue, you may dust a very light film of powder over the lips which allows the setting of lip color. A very effective and long lasting of rouge may result by the re-application of rouge. As you know the lip rouge comes in several different formulas select the type that will do the most good for your mouth. You may like the indelible type formula lip rouge as it is very pretty and long lasting."
Right side text: "In lip make-up, expand the corners of the lips as in a smile so that the corners of the mouth are taut, which allows brush to penetrate fine lines for thorough coverage and far enough inside the mouth and into the corners to be complete and even with lip brush for accuracy in outlining. Biting down carefully on a tissue blots much of the oils in the newly applied rouge and lasts and lasts without smearing."
Bottom text: "A cheerful aspect of those beautiful lips an expression of surprise a confirmation of melodious sincerity and true sympathetic appeal which may be summed up as the absolute unbreakable rule of successfull [sic] make-up as a simple harmony which rhymes into a balanced medium of lip make-up. As nature did not provide each and everyone with beautiful contoured lips or color which blend into warmth of beauty; therefore the final touch which completes the make-up is the application of a lip rouge and its various names as lip tint, lip coloring or lip shading; before applying lip tint be sure your lips are thoroughly cleansed, every trace of lip make-up must be removed and generous application of cold cream to your lips will clean to the best advantage and wipe with tissue."
As with the others, brief tips at the end of the left-side paragraph are included for each facial type. Here's an example for the rectangular type: "In lip design of a rectangular type face where a rather long face hold forth in prominence, to balance therefore the lips will have an asignment [sic] to harmonize the most important area of the face and to augment the beautiful colors to bring equilibrium to a face of symphonic poem, that is interest to that effect may be had by elevating of the highest point on the lip for an interesting show in prominence. The lower lip must be full to minimize the large area consisting of the chin and cleft, the lip rouge to form a tiny upward flare at the corners of the lower lip."
Bogardy's book had some skincare tips, which generally hold up fairly well in the 21st century. The text was the same for all so I did not include all the drawings of the different face shapes. "Beauty is a thing which gives pleasure to the senses; therefore, to achieve the objective, submit with great care to the following. Once a day if time permits several times a deep cleansing ritul [sic] must be done for all skin types wheather [sic] creaming the face or leathering [sic] it with soap; small circles about the size of a dime are worked with gentle but firm fingertips completely over entire area of the face and neck in an upward and outward direction; but do not pull or drag the skin. For the second time apply cold cream with a splash of lukewarm water on the face; lather up soap and again massage into the skin, now rinse with warm then finish with a cooler application of water which you pat dry. Apply witch hazel or skin refreshener to complete cleansing operation."
Left side text: "If you have dry skin use liquid creamy cleanser by day, at night useing [sic] only castile or olive oil soap for cleansing then apply a light film of night cream; tissue off all but a very thin film as the skin must breath [sic]. A protective film of vanishing cream must be used under cosmetics. If you have oily skin at intervals during the day cleanse with a very mild facial soap and water. Follow with estringent [sic] cleansing. Do not use night cream or cosmetics with a very oily base. Beneficial indeed the use of suphur [sic] and resorcinal ? soap as well as sulphur and resorcinal ointment to dry up the oiliness. Beauty is only an inner vitality forcing through the skin, it is well to follow the rules of health. Eat a hearty well balanced breakfast, drink plenty of water before, between and after meals. Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Lose self in absolute relaxation at intervals during day and plenty of sleep at night. Do apply cream useing [sic] both hands. Do massage motion in soaping creaming upward and outward. Do make sure soiled cream is off face before creaming. Do use soap and water daily and rinse well. Do remember hit and miss treatment blotch the skin."
"The four essentials for a beautiful skin. Cleanliness in leaving face clean, free from dirt likewise hands must be clean before touching face. Lubrication: to make skin smooth by the use of a good lubricating cream and repair or beauty stick to cover fine lines and blemishes. Stimulation: washing off the mask results in a stimulated circulation which keeps skin flexible and invigorating, leaving face a glow and bring tinge of natural color to the cheeks. Protection: In the coverage used to shield the skin against variable changes in the weather use protecting film of vanishing cream at night will keep skin smooth and soft."
Bogardy concluded each section with drawings he titled "Precious moments on a theme of golden silence" showing each of the face types looking up and surrounded by rays of soft golden light. Given his religious bend, these women appear angelic (the light could be a halo) and the upward glance might be directed towards heaven. The idea of transforming oneself from mere mortal to angelic being via makeup is still strong today – I could probably write a book about the intersection of heaven, angels and makeup.
"Eyes close together will appear wider apart when you spread light foundation from the inner eyelid up the side of the nose. Too round face will seem to appear oval when darker shade of foundation shadow the periphery outside the oval outline. The sallow skin picks up a glow from a rose toned powder base or possibly a pink tinge for late evening hours."
"When glasses are worn the eyes are very carefully made up so that there should be enough accent to draw attention to eyes rather than glasses. If the eyes are widely spaced shadow to the tear duct to make them seem close together, blend the shadow so it is not noticeable of having the darker amount near the lashes."
"A long nose will seem shorter when you darken the tip with a darker shade of foundation. Having a double chin you must use regular foundation shade, then apply darker tone. This will tend to minimize the chin area. Application should be under the jawbone, blend from ear to ear along the jawline."
"To cover scars is indeed a laborious process but you will reap a rich harvest in the end. For indented scar or depression, apply a tight cream or white foundation with a no. 3 sable oil brush inside scar, blending into basic foundation by patting, if the scar be a strabeery [sic] form birth mark a heavy opaque foundation will block it out. Use your regular foundation according to skin type in the surrounding area. Experiment with different types and colors of foundation in the same family group: by continued application the colors will become permanently formed about the scar."
Stylistically, I'm surprised at how modern these look. If we ignore the ostensibly '60s era head wraps, the illustrations resemble toned-down versions of MAC face charts and others readily available today. As for the instructions, despite the lack of diversity (the face types shown are presumably white women, with no mention of varying skin tones or eye shapes), the basic principle of balancing one's features remain somewhat relevant today. Overall though, even after sifting through the roughly 60 illustrations made available by the Smithsonian, I was still not entirely sure what Bogardy's motivation was in producing these. "The Hair and its Social Importance" was a self-published booklet to be distributed among his circle and hopefully more widely to the public; it's not clear who these makeup drawings were intended for. Then it dawned on me: they were probably meant to be a makeup counterpart to the hair booklet, given that it was considered a "hair bible" and my earlier theory that the beginnings of each section comprised introductions for a sort of prayer book. Parsons and Orgeron confirmed my hunch. "[Our] research during the summer and fall of 2001 turned up approximately one hundred extant paintings and colored-pencil drawings – sketches Bogardy had apparently rendered for a handbook on female beauty and the proper application of cosmetics. This manual, if he had been able to publish it, would most likely have served as a companion volume 'The Hair and its Social Importance'". So it was really a matter of him not getting to publish it for whatever reason. In any case, Bogardy enjoyed making art for others and sharing his cosmetic expertise, but his admiration of women and their presentation of feminine beauty, his dedication to Catholicism and the appeal of daily rituals were really the impetus for the drawings. "His sense of ritual permeated his personal life, and he was passionate about helping women look beautiful–both for themselves and for God," note Parsons and Orgeron, adding, "Clearly, this is the art of makeup application raised to the level of religious ceremony."
Thus, the beauty book was simply a matter of combining the areas he was most passionate about during the '50s and '60s: cosmetology, art, and devotion to God. I believe Bogardy presents a unique take on conventional beauty wisdom of the time. I'm not wild about the idea of women looking their best for anyone but themselves – I don't think we have a duty to look pretty for fellow humans, let alone God, nor do I think women require makeup to feel beautiful – but his enthusiasm for the transformative nature of makeup application elevates one's beauty tasks from the mundane to the divine. As I noted earlier, I'm not the slightest bit religious or even spiritual, but I do feel like my makeup routine is a ritual of sorts, especially when I can take my time and fully enjoy the process. Bogardy's drawings express and celebrate the near-heavenly state makeup application can bring. In our current era of "self-care" and "wellness", they also serve as a reminder to carve a few moments in our busy schedules to do the things that make us feel valued and worthwhile. Taking pleasure in performing a beauty ritual, whatever it may be, is just as good for the mind as it is for appearance.
That was a lot to take in! What do you think of Bogardy's beauty illustrations? Would you use any of these techniques?
*The Smithsonian gives Bogardy's birth year as 1901, but some other sources say 1902. One of the articles referenced above lists his possible dates of birth as 1901, 1903, 1917 and 1924…although if the Peabody has records of him studying violin there during the '20s I doubt he could have been born in the 19 teens or '20s. Another article by the same authors states, "While there is conflicting evidence concerning the precise year in which Alexander Bogardy was born, most of the data supports a birth date of April 20, 1901 in Budapest, Hungary."
I'm embarrassed to say that Facing Beauty: Painted Women and Cosmetic Art has been in my possession for well over a year (along with many others). As usual, it's not due to lack of interest that I hadn't gotten around to reading and reviewing it but rather the relentless lack of time. I was more than excited to dive into Facing Beauty, as it's written by Aileen Ribeiro, a renowned fashion/art historian (ahem!) and I always welcome an examination of makeup through an art history lens.
Ribeiro's premise is the exploration of Western beauty ideals from the Renaissance through the early 20th century (roughly 1500-1940) as portrayed in painting and literature, and how cosmetics both helped create and achieve these ideals. Facing Beauty is not intended as a fairly straightforward history of makeup nor is it strictly art history with a dash of cosmetics; rather, the book seeks to trace the evolution of what the Western world considered beautiful in particular points in time using art from those eras, and along the way, identifies makeup's role the formation and realization of beauty standards.
Chapter 1 covers the Renaissance period and appropriately begins in Italy, as the country served as the primary locus for Europe's cultural rebirth. Ribeiro reminds us that it was a time of lively cultural debate, and the topic of what constituted beauty was fervently discussed. Renaissance thinkers pondered beauty in all its forms, including the ideal female face and body. By and large, the ideal Renaissance woman possessed pale, flawless skin, sparkling yet dark eyes (sometimes achieved with the essence of the deadly nightshade plant, a.k.a. belladonna), a long straight nose, and a small mouth. Tidbit: did you know that blonde hair was preferred throughout the Renaissance? I didn't, nor did I know of the ridiculous lengths women would go to in order to acquire it, such as using this crownless hat (known as a solana) combined with a thorough application of various dyeing potions (some made with dangerous ingredients such as alum, some with harmless ones such as lemon juice) via a small sponge (sponzetta), along with a hefty dose of sunshine.
In painting and literature, women were still viewed as mostly decorative objects, existing only to be admired. Women's attempts to adhere to the established beauty standards, including the use of makeup, were actually expected and encouraged: it was their duty to appear pleasant to look at. "It was important for a woman to be physically beautiful (or try to be so), as a courtesy to others, and thus cosmetics were allowable as long as they were used in moderation. These themes appear over and over again throughout the [16th] century, as the idea of dress and appearance being pleasing to others began (unevenly at times) to replace the traditional Biblical belief that such things were indicative of pride and vanity." (p. 71) But as the Renaissance spread to Northern Europe, in the early 1600s cosmetics were becoming increasingly criticized for allegedly inciting vanity among women. Indeed, the debate over whether women should or shouldn't wear "auxiliary beauty" reached a fever pitch by the middle of the 17th century. By the late 1600s, with flourishing trade leading to an increase in the number of beauty products available to the average woman, the pendulum had swung back towards a mostly positive view of makeup. This in turn set the stage for the fashion excess so emblematic of the 1700s, as well as the establishment of a woman's "toilette" (formal beauty routine).
This brings us to Chapter 2, an overview of beauty ideals during the Enlightenment, which spanned approximately from 1700 through the early 1800s. Ribeiro explores how the era's leading philosophers continued the Renaissance's debate on beauty. Theoretically it represented a departure from Renaissance thinking in that writers and artists of the time no longer believed that a woman's face and body had to be perfectly proportional or symmetrical in order to be beautiful. Beauty was now in the eye of (male) beholder and also took a woman's personality into consideration. However, Enlightenment thinkers still clung to the usual standards of fair, clear skin, a high forehead, straight nose, and rosy lips and cheeks. One of the highlights of this chapter was the author's discussion of excess in fashion and beauty, including the fabulously elaborate toilette. I mean, look at this set from around 1755. How opulent! Wouldn't you love to get ready with this on your vanity? It's currently housed in the Dallas Museum of Art, but obviously I think its rightful home is the Makeup Museum. 🙂
Another fun little nugget of information: I knew a bit about how beauty patches were all the rage during this era and that their placement symbolized certain things from Sarah Jane Downing's Beauty and Cosmetics: 1550-1950, but I did not know that each area of the face corresponded to a zodiac sign – put a patch on your chin to show you were a Capricorn, or one over the left eye to signify your Aquarius sign. I'm astonished that the notion of matching beauty products to your zodiac sign goes all the way back to the 1700s! Of course, the heavy makeup worn by royalty and other upper-class women was not without its critics, especially artists. Ribeiro thoughtfully points out another connection between makeup and art: The excess caused painters to question whether they could capture a woman's true likeness and what exactly they were painting – the sitter or her makeup. "How much face painting was there meant to be in the painting of a face?" (p. 184) It also moved the age-old question of how one could determine a woman's "real" beauty if she was wearing layers of makeup to the forefront once again. But as we know, the passion for over-the-top fashion and makeup quickly died out as heads rolled in the late 1700s. Thus Chapter 2 concludes with a discussion of the return to a more natural look, in keeping with the Neoclassical style that permeated every aspect of post-revolution French culture. Makeup was still used to achieve what was thought of as ancient Greek or Roman beauty (think LM Ladurée and Madame Recamier), but the days of wearing thick layers of white paint (the ever-deadly ceruse), heavily rouged cheeks and patches were over. Nevertheless the market for makeup and skincare products continued to grow despite the even more austere approach to makeup following the decline of the Neoclassical style during the 1820s.
The last chapter was my favorite, as it outlines the development of modern beauty ideals from the 1830s through the early 20th century as well as how the beauty industry both shaped and was shaped by these notions – a topic I'm endlessly fascinated by due to its complexity and the fact that it serves as the foundation (haha!) of the makeup styles and looks we've come to rely on in the new millennium. Ribeiro's take on the rapid developments during this time, which represented a sea change in beauty culture, is quite different from other modern beauty histories such as Kathy Peiss's Hope in a Jar and Madeleine Marsh's Compacts and Cosmetics. As I noted earlier, Facing Beauty isn't meant to be a fairly straightforward history of cosmetics, and the last chapter describes some parallels between art and makeup that, in my opinion, are even more insightful than those in the previous chapters.
Earlier in the 1800s, beauty was more prominently linked to health and hygiene than in previous eras, hence the rise of historic soap companies like Pears, and remained that way till the early 1900s. The middle of the century also witnessed the birth of the societal norm of less makeup on "proper" (i.e. upper and middle-class) women; a noticeably painted face became associated with prostitutes, or at least the lower classes. This is more or less a twist on the long-standing association between beauty and virtue. Ribeiro notes that improvements in sanitation and medicine had largely eradicated the need for heavy makeup anyway. Shops were now promoting mostly skincare, light face powder and blush, eyeliner and brow powder. The author also points out how beauty became synonymous with cosmetics, perhaps rendering traditional ideas of beauty obsolete. In 1904 Australian artist Rupert Bunny depicted a modern-day version of the Three Graces applying powder and lip color, which, according to the author, is most likely the first time in the Western world that ideal beauty is directly associated with makeup.
In the 1910s makeup became more visible, both on the women wearing it and its widespread commercial availability. Ribeiro identifies another interesting connection between art and makeup during this time: bolder, more colorful abstract art inspired vibrant makeup. As an example the author uses the painting Maquillage by Natalia Goncharova, which "shows the bright primary colors and abrupt angular lines that [Goncharova] saw in contemporary makeup, a startling contrast to the soft and tender, 'ultra-feminine' beauty of the turn of the century. Cosmetics as art were influenced by art – the vivid colors seen in the work of the Fauves and in the clashing and barbaric beauty of the designs for the Ballet Ruses." (p. 298).
At this point makeup was also seen as essential for a woman's professional success in addition to landing a husband. Nevertheless, the free-spirited flapper era might be the first instance of women wearing makeup solely for themselves, as a symbol of their independence. The 1930s, a decade in which movie stars captured the hearts of audiences across the globe, is when cosmetics became inextricably linked to glamour and the ultimate symbol of femininity. And by the end of the second World War, makeup "was no longer associated with deceit, with disguising the real woman, and it had largely (if not completely) become free from association with immorality and sexual temptation. Most of all, beauty was regarded as something achieved by cosmetics, by science, rather than inherited; it was a commodity, no longer elitist but democratised," Ribeiro concludes (p. 325). The epilogue summarizes the attempts made from the mid-20th century until roughly now to define beauty and where cosmetics fit into a discussion about modern-day beauty ideals. It was well-written, but obviously I think another entire book on that time frame would make an amazing sequel.
Overall, I'd say Facing Beauty is a more in-depth version of the aforementioned book by Sarah Jane Downing, as they cover the same time periods and draw on many of the same sources. While it was an excellent read, I remember my dismay regarding the brevity of Downing's book. Facing Beauty expands on Downing's work by offering a lengthier analysis of art and literature to help tell the story of makeup and beauty, as well more information on beauty recipes and ingredients. The latter reminds me a bit of Susan Stewart's wonderful Painted Faces. However, Facing Beauty does not delve much into the societal role of cosmetics, an aspect that makes Stewart's book stand out from other cosmetics history tomes. In any case, it's a thoroughly enjoyable and well-researched read, and a must-have for anyone who wants to learn more about the intersection of art and makeup. As compared to other books in the same vein, Facing Beauty provides the quintessential overview of Western beauty ideals as seen through an art historian's perspective and thoroughly covers how makeup corresponds to them.
Have you read this one? If not, are you interested in checking it out?
Over the past few years I've really been enjoying Clé de Peau's artist collaborations for their holiday collections. They select artists with very different styles but ones that somehow always do an amazing job representing the brand's vision and aesthetic. This year the company partnered with Italian surrealist illustrator Daria Petrilli, who, as you will see, is as mysterious as her dreamlike artwork.
According to this interview with the Shiseido team responsible for the collection, Clé de Peau's makeup director Lucia Pieroni selected an Alice in Wonderland theme, or a "winter fairyland" per the translation of the French "féeries d'hiver". Consisting of pale pinks and greys contrasting with bold berry and a dash of soft shimmer, the color scheme is meant to evoke a winter tea party in an English garden. It was packaging designer Kaori Nagata who suggested collaborating with Petrilli and who translated her beautiful illustrations to equally gorgeous boxes and palette cases. Simply put, the team was "mesmerized by [Petrilli's] talent." They were also searching for an artist who could elevate a theme usually intended for children and create a grown-up version of Wonderland to match the style (and price tag) of a high-end line. As Shiseido rep Saiko Kawahara notes, "Brands of low to mid price range create many products that are 'adorable,' but I think that is precisely why it is necessary to add some refinement, such as 'a grown-up joke' or 'spicy playfulness,' when a prestige brand attempts to create an 'adorable' product." Indeed, while Disney-fied versions of Alice worked well on mid-end brands like Beyond, Paul & Joe and Urban Decay, I don't think they'd be appropriate for Clé de Peau. And I don't mean that in a snooty way either – that style just wouldn't be a good fit for the brand.
Now let's get to the goodies! I picked up the eye shadow quad, pressed powder, stick highlighter, and one of the lipsticks. I think the colors for the makeup itself are lovely, but what really blew me away is the mix of aqua, light pink and fuchsia with hints of coral and deep wine throughout the packaging.
The playing card embossing is a stroke of genius.
I adore all the packaging, but the white rabbit peeking out of the box for the powder highlighter and the woman's rosy cheeks and chic dark lips on the outer case are possibly my favorites out of the collection.
In addition to the key, checkerboard and playing card motifs, the names for each product were also carefully chosen to align with the Alice theme. This lipstick, for example, is called Paint Me (the other is Follow Me), an homage to both painting the queen's roses red and the "eat me/drink me" signs in Lewis Carroll's classic book. Meanwhile, the eyeshadow quad is named Tea Party, the pressed powder Pink Push Me, and the stick highlighter Light Me.
The company even came up with an ad featuring a poem for each item. The animations are looking a little Monty Python to me, but that's probably just because I've been re-watching it on Netflix the past few weeks. It's still pretty cute.
The moisturizer is the one piece I did not buy, as I couldn't justify the $535 (!) price tag for just the outer packaging. Even if the jar itself was decorated I still couldn't have bought it – too rich for my blood. Still, it's beautiful, and the keyhole cut out, along with the cut-outs on the other boxes, emphasize a connection to the entire Clé de Peau brand. Says Ayumi Nishimoto, another member of Shiseido's creative team, "Not only does this tie in with the holiday concept ('open the door to the extraordinary'), it is also brilliantly linked to Clé de Peau Beauté’s tagline, 'unlock the power of your radiance.'" Indeed, "clé" is French for key, so this detail creates complete cohesion across the holiday collection and Clé de Peau line. Now that's what I call synergy!
Apologies for the lackluster photo, it was the only one I could find of the cutout.
The keys were also used on the skincare sets, none of which I purchased but still covet.
Finally, there were some very nice gift boxes and bags featuring different images, which were offered with the purchase of any two items from the holiday collection at the Clé de Peau website. Since I eagerly bought the collection as soon as it became available at Neiman Marcus (so I could use my store card and also get 10% cash back via Ebates), I missed this as well. I might hunt for one on ebay.
As for the worldwide marketing of the collection, both online and in-store advertising were simply dazzling. The advertising and design team created a truly magical video where Petrilli's illustrations spring to life. Unlike the ad above, this one features much more sophisticated animations and cutting-edge 360 degree technology so that the viewer feels totally immersed in Wonderland. Nishimoto and fellow team member Satoko Tomizawa explain: "As global campaigns are launched in various countries around the world, it is necessary to create something that is highly versatile and universal. This time, we took on a new challenge of making not just a campaign video, but also a 360-degree video that anyone, anywhere, can experience through their smartphones. Viewers can enjoy more of the wonderland that we have created. While remaining respectful of Daria’s illustrations, we paid special attention to giving the campaign videos a sense of worldliness unique to 3D animation. We asked the production studio Shirogumi, Inc. to produce the CGI for the story of a rabbit jumping through keyholes and traveling through wonderland."
Additionally, I must say the set up at their Omotesando Hills location in Tokyo was spectacular, rivaling the decor used for Kathe Fraga's breathtaking collection last year. Tomizawa states that the collection theme allowed the company to show a more whimsical side of the brand and push the boundaries of not only packaging but also store design. "We created a spatial experience, where visitors could enter as the mysterious wonderland as if their bodies had shrunk small. Not only was the Clé de Peau Beauté Store in Omotesando Hills in holiday mode, but entire complex invited visitors to experience wonderland. Large banners hung from ceiling to the floor, blownup packaging made their appearances in the staircase, a mysterious tea party setting along with the 360-degree video was on display. It was the first time that the holiday collection was featured in such a large-scale event. Inspired by the packaging design, we were able to expand on many playful ideas for digital and spatial design. Through this wonderland we were able to show a more imaginative, playful side of the prestige brand." I would have loved to visit this magical setup!
Now that we've covered the collection, let's delve into the world of the highly secretive Daria Petrilli. Born in 1970 in Rome, she graduated with an MA in Communication and Design at the Università La Sapienza, then moved to London and completed a degree in Experimental Illustration at the London College of Communication, a school within the prestigious University of the Arts London. Petrilli has been commissioned for magazines (most recently, her work accompanied a rather depressing piece about suicide in Oprah Magazine), children's books and has had several solo exhibitions. Her illustrations also served as one of the inspirations for fashion label Delpozo's fall 2016 collection. However, it seems that Petrilli prefers to remain out of the spotlight. She has no website, Tumblr or Instagram. The only social media platform she uses is Pinterest, and she uses it to highlight "illustrations made for my personal joy, without bosses, and even publishers …only for my pleasure." She has granted only two interviews and her work has been discussed in just two brief articles that I was able to find online, and they're either in Italian or badly translated, so I'm not sure how much of it I'll be able to use. As we know, relying on Google more often than not results in nonsensical translations, but I will try to decipher everything as best I can. It's a shame she's not as willing to put herself out there as much as some artists are, because I'm dying to know her thoughts on working with Clé de Peau and her own approach to makeup. The few photos I was able to find of Petrilli show her seemingly barefaced save for one.
Anyway, onto her work. I won't pretend that I can explain it or provide any real insight, but here's a brief description. Many of Petrilli's illustrations depict ethereal, brooding women occupying dreamlike landscapes and interiors, often with animals. As with other Surrealist imagery, the scenes are odd and even a little unsettling at times. Most of the women appear melancholy and isolated; they seem to be alone even when other figures are included. Perhaps one is meant to be the real self and other figures/animals are a projection of her innermost thoughts and feelings, or in true Surrealist style, a representation of the unconscious mind. These women contrast with those in the Clé de Peau collection, who seem to be peacefully relaxing within the magical realm of Wonderland.
While she started out painting, admiring the Renaissance frescoes of her native Rome and using the techniques of the Old Masters, Petrilli found that digital illustration best suited her interest in creating surreal images. She describes how her artistic journey and search for her personal style was shaped by her upbringing in Rome as well as the birth of her daughter: "Ever since I was a child I lost myself in the images of illustrated books and I was completely fascinated…Taking a course of classical studies and helped by the fact that I live in a city, Rome, immersed in antiquities and ancient splendor I have always had a passion for the history of art, with a predilection for certain representation and historical periods including one on all the surrealism…I was helped by the birth of my daughter, to keep up with her or put aside my commercial work, and I found myself spending a lot of time alone me and my computer. Prior to that I drew and painted especially with the classical techniques especially acrylic, oil, watercolor, pencils, and I used the digital as a compendium…I began to realize that I could convey in a fast and effective manner the ideas that came to me all the time. And I began to compose images like this for my simple pleasure of them without a purpose or aim at something…Digital manipulation was the element that allowed me to give it life, mixing, overlapping and painting my creations and have become increasingly personal." In looking at her work, it's hard to believe these images are created digitally. I could easily mistake them for paintings given how seamlessly the individual elements, strange though they might be, are combined. When I think of digital art my mind immediately jumps to collages. Not that there's anything wrong with that – I love me a good collage – but I imagine them to resemble cutouts jumbled together rather than the smoothness of paintings. In the illustration below, for example, I feel as though I can practically see brushstrokes on the fish, and the transparency of the women's fingers also appear to have been rendered in paint.
Petrilli is particularly enamored by birds because "their eyes fascinate me for that sense of primordial concern emanating", or translated another way, "To me they communicate a sense of primordial restlessness.” Whatever the meaning of that may be, here are some of my favorite avian-themed works by the artist.
Stylistically, I'm seeing many different artistic influences in Petrilli's work. Her appreciation for the Renaissance art she grew up with is exemplified in a variety of ways, such as the clothing her characters wear, use of perspective and generally muted background colors. This one in particular reminds me of two Renaissance paintings: da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine (both the woman's hairstyle and the position of her hands holding the bird look similar) and Piero della Francesca's Montefeltro Altarpiece, which has a pendant egg suspended in the background. (Obviously there are entire books on symbolism in Renaissance and Surrealist art so attempting to go into more detail on my humble little blog would be a fruitless effort, but you can start with thesetwo if you're so inclined. There's also a veritable goldmine of books on women and surrealism, which are relevant given Petrilli's focus on portraying women.)
Other surrealist artists may have influenced Petrilli. In Hypnosis Double, the way the women are posed call to mind Frida Kahlo's Two Fridas. And while the deer seem unharmed, perhaps they're a nod to The Wounded Deer.
I'm also seeing a resemblance between Petrilli's work and that of contemporary Surrealist Christian Schloe. As a matter of fact, doing an image search I thought some of his works were Petrilli's.
Despite these similarities, I'm not implying Petrilli's work is in any way derivative. Her content and style are unique and deeply personal; the way in which she weaves together a variety of art history styles and techniques breathes new life into digital illustration and reflects her own individual artistic upbringing and training. Another reason I think Clé de Peau made an excellent decision to commission her for an Alice in Wonderland inspired collection is that Petrilli has explored it before. Below is Alice's Dream, along with other works that have the same motifs as the Clé de Peau collection: flamingos, keys, butterflies, flower-women hybrids, and a checker-printed floor. Again, I'm sure there are hidden meanings in these but that's just way too much ground to cover here.
In conclusion, I'm massively impressed with both Petrilli's work and the Clé de Peau collection. This year the company took a chance by exploring a more whimsical theme and succeeded thanks to Petrilli's imagery, which is a far more refined and elegant representation of Alice in Wonderland than any other makeup collection I've seen. As I mentioned earlier, I absolutely adore the cutesy treatment used by other brands since it reminds me of my childhood, but this was a nice change of pace and obviously suits a luxury brand like Clé de Peau much better. I just wish I could have heard a little more from Petrilli's perspective about working on the collection.
What do you think? What's your favorite illustration out of these?
