How
Art Becomes Clothing
Stella Schwartz ’11 recently examined American clothing
from the 1920s for a new exhibition on campus, titled “Appropriating
Art Into Dress,” for which she was curator.
Schwartz’s exhibition,
displayed on the first floor of Mendenhall Center for the
Performing Arts, takes a look at how patterns and motifs
from early 20th-century European art movements filtered
into common American dress. The exhibition compares three
American dresses from the 1920s with European artwork of
the period.
The project was the culmination of research by Schwartz
and Kiki Smith,
associate professor of theatre, and was supported by a grant
from the Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation.
In addition to the dresses on display, the project involved
the study and
conservation of 21 garments from the Smith Historical
Clothing
Collection, an archive of more than 1,000 objects donated
by Smith alumnae
and friends.
“Appropriating Art Into Dress” will
remain on display until January 31, 2009.
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