Last month, on a bus traveling through New Rochelle, I didn't feel defeated about not being able to see the haute couture exhibit. I alchemized my frustration into determination. Trip #1 was a relative dry run, and I was going to New York on July 1st with a plan entirely focused on the museum. Well that, and giving myself more time to get through the crowd on my way back to the railroad station.
The biggest delay of the day was in getting to Back Bay Station. I schedule these day trips for Saturdays, and that unfortunately means infrequent public transit. Especially so early in the morning. I found myself in an Orange Line car at Forest Hills which was sitting stagnantly with a "Boarding" status for 10 minutes. By the time that I got to Back Bay Station, my Amtrak train had just left, and I had to wait an hour and half for the next available train. I used the time to walk around Copley Square and get some Pokémon Go quests completed. On the train, I got to charge my phone while listening to Vogue's Run Through podcast and watch some streamed vintage Saturday morning cartoons. While Darkstalkers is a great show, I'm not sure how networks weren't pushing for Felicia (the scantily clad neko / "cat girl"). Especially in 1995, you'd think that she'd be wearing superhero tights akin to Hepzibah's from X-Men.
My train arrived at 1pm, and it took me about 45 minutes to get from the Moynihan Train Hall to the Met on foot. Pretty great time, right? After checking my backpack, I got a visitors' guide, and navigated my way through the map. I go through the center, and toward the left I ascend to the second floor(let's make this dramatic wording). I've been a fan of impressionist art ever since I saw some of Monet's works back in 8th grade. All of a sudden, I find myself face-to-face with Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "By the Seashore". This is one of the artist's most recognizable works in the world, and suddenly, it was right there. I continued through the Renoir exhibit, seeing "Madame Edouard Bernier". This is a portrait of a woman married to some who Renoir served under in the military. Renoir even lived in the couple's house while teaching their daughter how to paint. Renoir just had this innate ability to depict feminine grace regardless of the subject's social standing.
I'm also a landscape artist and Frits Thaulow's "Picquigny" really caught my attention. Big part of impressionist painting is the study of how light reflects (displaying an image to the eye). "Picquigny" reminded me of digital paintings that I painted freehand as to show the Charles River Esplanade, or even Harvard Square's brick pavement after a rain shower. Water provides such a great example of reflection that it makes for a fascinating art subject. When it came to Paul Cézanne's work, I was honestly too swept up in the figurative and landscape paints to spend that much time looking at the still lives, but all if the hillside depth in "Gardanne" definitely caught my eye. The oil paints here come across almost looking like watercolors in their distinct shows of vibrant and crisp colors.
Moving closer to the back of the museum, I see the museum's big Picasso painting. "Au Lapin Agile" was commissioned by the owner of a cabaret club which still remains a fixture in Paris. The painting depicts Picasso, Germaine Pichot, and Frédéric Gérard in the room where Gérard was in fact going to hang the painting. This painting was part of Picasso's "Rose Period", during which jester motifs were a recurring theme. This may have very well contributed to the jester niche in "Clown-Core" fashion. Some of Cardcaptor Sakura's costumes may be a great example of more recent jester-core, though the first example that I thought of was the photoshoot for Goldfrapp's "Seventh Tree" album.
The last of the impressionism that I viewed was a collection of landscapes by Camille Pissaro and Claude Monet. The French provence of Normandy (especially its capital Rouen) had been a strong inspiration for Pissaro. In the more urban landscapes, I can barely imagine the artist setting up a place to paint from such a vantage point. "Boulevard Montmarte on a Winter Morning" is not just looking at a boulevard directly up the center, but from high up. "Morning, Overcast Day, Rouen"shows a more industrial side of the city. With a smoke stack working away, and the River Seine serving as a busy means of transit. It reminds me of when I visit Brooklyn and saw barges and municipal facilities so candidly showing the city's inner workings. Some of the Monets in the exhibit were gothic "Cathedral Rouen" and a more natural river view in "Morning on the Seine".
Nearing the back corner, it was like my art history courses coming to life as I saw in person Jasper Johns's "White Flag", "Office in a Small City" by Edward Hopper, Jackson Pollock's "Number 28", and Salvador Dali's "Madonna". I don't normally resonate as much with abstract expressionists, but seeing one of Johns's famous flag paintings and a Pollock, I took a close look, and was imagining the artist at work. I had seen Jackson Pollock's "Red Composition" at Syracuse's Everson Museum of Art. I'm still not sure how it happened, but in the spring semester of my freshman year at Syracuse University, I found myself in an advanced paint course (taught by Gary Trento) and (wait for it) 500-level art history course on "20th Century American Art". Part of what drew me to the course was the subject matter (at 19 years old, I thought that it was the next step from Tomas Piche's foundational art history course). 4 credits instead of 3? Yes, please. It was at class when I realized that every other student was a senior or grad student. Like in Shawn Hunter 's Boy Meets World episode where he regularly cut high school to take a college philosophy course, I did very well, but it was in the essay writing that I wasn't producing A+ material. Upon a research tripto the Everson, I was primarily focusing on Robert Henri and "the Ashcan School", but that's also where I saw Pollock's "Red Composition".
The most recent painting that really impacted me that day was "the Big Oval" by Jane Dickson. It was so humanizing to read about Dickson's day job working on the Mega Screen at Times Square. The inspiration for the Big Oval was a trip to a carnival in Florida. I could see a connection between both spectacles of commercial illumination, and how it appears in the dark. Just now, I'm Googling her other pieces, and am seeing that recurring trend in lit up billboards, theater marquees, and casino games. I'm not sure whether Jane's work in Times Square influenced her artistic eye, if it was the other way around, or if it was a little of both.
At this point, I got the text message I had been waiting for. After the months of planning, QR codes, and online queues, I was able to step into "Karl Lagerfeld: a Line of Beauty" Lady Amanda Harlech had told Vogue that spending enough time in the exhibit, you start to feel Karl's presence, so I was preparing myself as an artist. Especially an artist of mystical belief. Walking into the exhibit, you see on your right one of the designer's famously cluttered workspaces arranged such detail where you can see felt tip markers, crayons, and a tabloid with Harry & Meghan on the cover. On the left, is a video of Lagerfeld's hands sketching a garment. As the next room helped to communicate, a big part of the exhibit wasn't just a celebration of Karl's seven decades in fashion, but how his sketches so specifically explained to his team of autilliers how the clothes were to be assembled. You see, much of Lagerfeld's most famous work were "haute couture" pieces that stand out as handmade representations of fashion labels that are then tweaked to fit the consumers. The curators of the exhibit were blessed with recorded videos where autilliers showed Lagerfeld drawings and explained how they interpreted the sketches as precise instructions. beside the video screens, you got to see first hand the very garments that these women were speaking about. From the 1954 coat design that won first prize in the French International Wool Secretariat to dresses that had been posthumously created after Karl's 2019 death. There are multiple ways to look at the presentation as a whole.
While there were garments mostly arranged in chronological order, there were breaks in that sequence where you could see collected examples of recurring themes. You could see dresses sampled from several decades displaying inspiriting drawn from far eastern culture example. It can't be overstated how much of a bibliophile Karl Lagerfeld was, and I'd love to know if he ever explored the designs (and possibly, the writing) of the manga series "Cardcaptor Sakura". This series from the creative collective Clamp combines eastern and western mysticism with divination, art nouveau inspired card illustrations, and ornate costume design which the franchise is still known for after 25 years. From Rococo-inspired "lolita" fashion to jester-core, each outfit that Tomoyo created for Sakura's "Cardcaptor" missions had an haute couture level of sophistication in their expertise. Even if there were cute themes involved like cats, frogs, and Lewis Carroll's adventures of Alice in Wonderland. I invite any friend of Karl's to comment on what what this iconic artist thought of Cardcaptor Sakura, or what Karl would've hypothetically thought of it if he sat down with some manga,
After seeing clothing from Lagerfeld's time at Chanel, Fendi, Chloe, and his eponymous brand, visitors to the exhibit are faced with a tribute to Karl's "dolly" image. A pair of his sunglasses, a pair of his fingerless leather gloves, and one of his neckties were presented in lightboxes near garments designed as homages to Karl's famous look. There was even an attendee purposefully dressed like Lagerfeld, down to white hair tied back in a ponytail. Personally, I had chosen an outfit that thematically fit Karl's rock attitude which melds into Jimmy Page's degree of semi-flamboyant swagger. Faux leather Chelsea boots, flare legged jeans, a black leather belt, and a black tee featuring Led Zeppelin's "Icarus" drawing in promotion for the band's 1977 tour.
Not wanting to be late for my train, I bought some souvenirs from the exhibit and left with two hours to get to the station. I got this great hardcover book and some prints on my way out. I made really good time while walking the length of Central Park. In front of the Park Plaza Hotel, I took some photos looking across the pond as wildfire smoke added some hazy dimension to the depth of field. As I got to Times Square, I thought of Jane Dickson, and realized that the famous "ball" was already descending. I just thought that the ball dropped New Year's Eve. I had no idea that the ball slowly lowered throughout the length of the year. I had some time to get snacks at the Times Square Target store, and reached Moynihan Train Hall with 20 minutes to go. On the way back, I got to see a few little attractions like shipping cranes in New London, CT. The man sitting next to me was just bringing his family back from visiting the Smithsonian. It turn out that they had previously visited the Met the same day as my first trip of the summer. One of the big goals had been to see the Met's Picasso painting, but they had overlooked the painting as they looked for something more distinctly cubist. I was like "I know, right? The painting is surprisingly not that abstract."
Part of the reason for the delay in publishing this entry (my apologies) is that I've been planning to include a freehand digital impressionist painting of my own. Like Pissarro's fascination with the Normandy landscapes, the views of Central Park had captured my imagination. Following this Society6 hyperlink, you find lithographs and other prints of this freehand digital painting.
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