Homage
On this new page you’ll find posts dedicated to the legacy of the artform – sort of a geneology of fashion drawing. Like any “family” there are clearly inherited traits and a daisy chain of influence passed down from one generation of artists to the next.
A Renewed Passion for Romaine Brooks
Reading about Hide/Seek at the Brooklyn Museum reminded me how taken I was with the work of Romaine Brooks when I first saw her paintings at the National Portrait Gallery last January. While clearly in the realm of fine art, the illustration of fashion figured prominently in her portraiture.
Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories
Last January, in an effort to escape the cold weather in NYC, I headed south to Washington D.C. for a last chance to see Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery. The show has now travelled to the Brooklyn Museum and is very much worth a visit. The National Portrait Gallery is currently mounting the exhibit Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories, so there would appear to be an ongoing theme here.
ASeveral years back I was honored (and starstruck) to have my work included along side many of my lifelong fashion illustration heroes at The Best of Beauty and Fashion Illustration exhibition at the Society of Illustrators. Kenneth Paul Block, who mentored many of my teachers, had a huge body of exquisite published work. Nonetheless, when selecting work for the show, Block instead chose a more personal illustration, one he had done for himself, of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Block’s work for WWD is prominently featured in my book WWD Illustrated 1960s – 90s
Romaine Brooks/Self Portrait 1923/Catalog Cover for Hide/Seek
- Gertrude Stein at Balmain Fashion Show/Horst P. Horst 1946
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas as imagined by Kenneth Paul Block
Sometimes a fashion illustration can become a symbol of the times. There has been a lot of (well merited) talk of late about Azzedine Alaia (see What’s New) which set me to thinking about Grace Jones, his ultimate muse. This in turn lead me to the famous illustration of Grace Jones by Pater Sato, whose airbrush technique was not only a nostalgic reference to the forties’ pinup girls by artists such as Vargas and Petty, but also a postmodern icon in its own right.
Jack Potter’s drawing classes at the School For Visual Arts inspired a cult following for over 35 years. Potter insisted that drawing from photographs was high crime and that nothing short of live model drawing would do. Potter’s own career as a commercial artist quickly took off in the fifties. His impressionistic drawing style was a departure from the prevailing painterly realism in magazines and advertising
At the height of his success, he quit the field and thereafter devoted his time to teaching generations of fashion illustrators. When asked why he stopped taking commercial commissions, he told a friend that clients “want me to do the same thing every time.”
I studied with Potter for several years and suffice to say that his was a formidable presence in the classroom!
Here, some wonderful images from Harper’s Bazaar circa February 1963 by Katarina Denzinger, one of my teachers at Parsons oh so many years ago. In the sixties there was a blurring of fine and commercial arts as championed by Andy Warhol (himself a fashion illustrator, prior to POP art fame). Denzinger’s illustrations referenced movements in fine art (and in this case, Fernand Leger in particular) and challenged accepted notions about the attenuated proportions of a tradtional fashion figure. All images © 1963 Katharina Denzinger.
