L: From "Mfengu" at Axis Gallery (photo: NYTimes)
R: Jean-Louis Scherrer (French, founded 1962). Coat, autumn/winter 1990–1991
Multicolored rooster, duck, and fowl feathers; Friedrich's Optik. Eyeglasses, 2004. Black acetate-plastic. Metropolitan Museum of Art
via NYTimes: Critic's Notebook
When Fabric Is Where Culture Meets Style [excerpts]
By MARGO JEFFERSON
Published: December 13, 2005
Western and non-Western (or "ethnic") clothes used to be defined in
terms of fashion versus costume or national dress. Fashion was dynamic
and inventive, eager to borrow from all kinds of cultures. Dress and
costume were bound first and foremost to tradition; shaped of ritual
and social practice committed to cultural preservation, not change.
Then again, the divisions between art and craft used to be
absolutely fixed as well; likewise those between high and popular or
vernacular art. As recently as the 1980's, visitors to museums were
sternly warned not to view exhibitions of work from Africa, Asia or
South America as "art" per se, but rather as collections of objects for
religious and social use.
Of course there is historical truth
here. But truth is much more varied and mutable on both sides than we
once thought. Context matters. [...]
Last week I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute
to see "Rara Avis," an exhibition of clothes and accessories from the
collection of Iris Barrel Apfel. Mrs. Apfel is much more than a
connoisseur, she is an authoritative collector of antique fabric, a
restoration consultant and, with her husband, the founder of Old World
Textiles. [...]
A few days after seeing "Rara Avis," I went to the Axis Gallery in
Chelsea to see "Mfengu: Personal Objects and Textiles from South
Africa." It is an elegantly small collection. Skirts, cloaks and
headscarves hang on the wall: this is dress as art. It is refined
minimalism. (My colleague Holland Cotter cited the delicate severity of
Agnes Martin.) The patterns of detailed, whimsical beading made me also
think of Paul Klee. And the black headscarves look like constellations,
with patterns of pale thread and white buttons that form circular and
geometric shapes. [...]
Western fashion lives by the myth of individuality even when it is
dictated ("In: Purple. Out: Turquoise"), duplicated (ready-to-wear
clothes) or mass-produced with a brand (Stella McCartney for H &
M). How little we know about the individuality of non-Western clothes,
especially among groups determined to preserve their traditions. Joan
Broster, the fashion historian who collected South African clothes, was
a pioneer in the field.
Iris Barrel Apfel is truly an original.
I expected that, and it delighted me. What I didn't expect - and what
delighted me just as much - was the originality to be found among these
rural South African women whose names we will never know.
"Rara
Avis" continues through Jan. 22 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Fifth Avenue at 82d Street, (212)535-7710. "Mfengu" continues through
Dec. 22 at Axis Gallery, 453 West 17th Street, between 9th and 10th
Avenues, (212) 741-2582.
