All in the best possible taste

After more than a month without getting to see any major London exhibitions, this week two came along at once.  Yesterday I went to the amazing Abstract Expressionism at the Royal Academy which was quite exhausting.  A couple of years ago before I knew anything about art history, I might wandered around confused, but this was just the perfect timing having just finished a year studying 20th century art.  Like many art works, no image can take the place of the real thing, and I can see now why Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Clifford Still (and many others) have such a following. However, as this is a textile themed blog and there was absolutely nothing specifically textile related about this these works, I will move on to the exhibition I saw on Thursday.

With a title of The Vulgar: Fashion Redefined, currently showing at The Barbican, you might think that this was going to be an exhibition of really bad fashion.  Instead, as the display clearly explained, to understand what is vulgar you also need to understand what is tasteful so here was plenty of both. In fact it might be difficult to assess what was vulgar as much depends on who you are and when you lived that allows you to decide what is vulgar and what is not.  Even some of the outfits that I might have put into the "vulgar" category on first sight, I had to admire for the exquisite detail, much of it embroidery.  

The word vulgar has had many meanings, and originally it was more about something common and ordinary than something ostentatious and showy.  So is being vulgar something that is trying to be something it isn't - a copy?  Something glitzy or provocative?  Something extravagant and out of place?

Amongst the pieces on show there was some exquisite lace, 18th century court gowns, historic stomachers and Viennese "golden bonnets" from Wien Museum, Vienna, dating from 1798-1810, so even if you were just interested in historic fashion there was plenty to see.  There was also plenty of twentieth and 21st century high fashion, including some made from denim (a vulgar fabric?) and a dress made of pencils.  The range of fashion styles on show meant there was much to admire and even some pieces to make you almost laugh out loud - although perhaps that would be acting in a rather vulgar way?

In conclusion, I thought this a very thought provoking exhibition.  It was also definitely worth sitting and watching the recorded interviews of fashion designers answering the question "what is vulgar?"  I came out seeing the world in a new light. 

The Vulgar: Fashion Redefined continues at The Barbican, London until 5 February 2017

Abstract Expressionism continues at the Royal Academy, London until 2 January 2017

Unfortunately as I can not post any images of either of these exhibitions, I have added an image of Omer Arbel's 44, which is currently installed in the Barbican foyer (until 18 April 2017).

Here's to 2016

New Year is for me always a time to take stock of the year just past.  Every time I visit an exhibition now I make a record of it in a scrapbook - I have been doing it since 2012 and it is surprising how just a little bit of information takes you back in time, remembering things that were on display. Something nice to look through on a cold, dark, rainy winter's evening.

However New Year is also a time for looking forward and planning exhibitions coming up over the year ahead, though I doubt I'll get to them all.  This is a list of textile related exhibitions either currently in progress (and some of which I have seen, but recommend) or coming up in the next 12 months.

Firstly some shows already started, some just about to finish:

Until 4th January 2016 - Fashion Rules at Kensington Palace, London - looking at the glamorous dresses of the Queen, Princess Margaret and Princess Diana; it then reopens on 11 February 2016 as Fashion Rules, Restyled.

Until 9 January 2016 - Losing the Compass at White Cube, Mason's Yard in Bermondsey - includes work by Amish quilters, William Morris but also many fine art, contemporary artists working in textiles.

Until 10 January 2016 - Fabric of India at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.  Definitely a "must see" exhibition which I hoped to revisit; but now think time is against me.

Until 13 January 2016 - Olga de Amariai: Alchemist  at the Rook & Raven Gallery on London's Soho area.  Another exhibition I have only just learnt of, with work by an artist described in Embroidery magazine (Jan/Feb 2016) as "the Louise Bourgeois of Columbia" (review by Liz Hoggard".

Until 31 January 2016 - Shoes: Pleasure and Pain also at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.  An interesting exhibition but very crowded - in the lower galleries.  Wish I had had time to leave my coat in the cloakroom.

Until 28 February 2016 - Liberty in Fashion at the Fashion and Textile Museum, London.  Still on my "to do" list.

Until 1 March 2016 - The White Show at the Flow Gallery, London includes stitched work by Richard McVetis.  Another "to do" list show.

Until 1 May 2016 - A Stitch in Time: Home Sewing Before 1900, also at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.  I have only just learnt about this display which apparently has been available since May 2015.  It is in Gallery 116.

Until 15 May 2016 - Life and Sole: Footwear from the Islamic World - another display I have only just discovered and apparently includes some embroidered shoes.  In Room 34 of the British Museum.

Opening in 2016:

5 January to 19 March 2016 - Centenary Stitches will be exhibiting at the National Archives, Kew. Knitted clothing items made for a film Tell Them About Us, that told the story of two brothers during WWI also gave an insight into the sort of items made on the Home Front to make life in the trenches a little more bearable.

11 February to 22 May 2016 - Vogue 100: A Century of Style, National Portrait Gallery, London.  An exhibition to celebrate 100 years of British Vogue with a display of photographs documenting the story of one of the most influential fashion magazines.

20 February to 29 May 2016 - Social Fabric: African Textiles at the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow.  Printed fabrics from east and south Africa show how textiles can express the concerns of the people who wear them.

11 March to 17 April 2016 - Art Textiles: Marian Clayden at the Fashion and Textile Museum, London.  Born in 1937, Marian was a skilled dyer and painter of textiles for the fashion industry.  She died in 2015 and this retrospective will showcase work from her incredible career.

16 April 2016 to 5 February 2017 - Undressed: 350 Years of Underwear in Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  A look at the history of undergarments.

15 June to 10 July 2016 - E.A.S.T. will be exhibiting Between the Lines at Landmark Arts Centre, Teddington. Also talk and workshops - more details in due course.

13 October 2016 to 5 February 2017 - The Vulgar at the Barbican, London.  Looking at notions of vulgarity by looking at fashions of the Renaissance, 18th century and current times.

21 November 2016 to 28 March 2017 - Opus Anglicanum: Masterpieces of English Medieval Embroidery at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  A golden age for English embroidery, this exhibition looks at not only the craftsmanship but at the wider world at the time they were created.

I will try and keep a separate page on this blog now of exhibitions with a textile theme.  Hopefully I can update this as and when I learn of new ones.

I'd love to hear from anyone else on exhibitions I should add.