Paintings so real you could eat them
Trompe l'œil in fashion and art
Last week was Haute Couture Week in Paris, so naturally, I’ve been thinking about clothes. Side note: That Margiela show! I would have cried if I had been there; it was the most beautiful fashion performance I’ve seen from a runway show in a long time.
I think we can look to fashion to understand art and vice versa. Recently, there’s been an uptick in trompe l'œil fashion. Bottega Veneta’s leather pants camouflaged as jeans—the craftsmanship is so intricate it’s hard to know the difference. Acne has a whole line of trompe l'œil pieces, including corset-stiched mesh shirts. Schiaparelli’s couture show included a balaclava with trompe l'œil hair & eyelashes. The list goes on.
An art technique popularized in the Baroque period, trompe l'œils are technical skills meant to trick. There’s a Greek myth that the painters Zeuxis and Parrhasius held a competition to see who could paint the most realistic grapes. Zeuxis won; his grapes were so realistic a bird tried to eat them.
You have to be a good painter to pull of trompe l'œil—by adding a bit of oddness or humour along with it, you’re also winking to the viewer. It says: I know I’m a great painter, but I also like to have some fun.
A few nods to trompe l'œil in the art world:
Sylvia Plimack Mangold’s paintings, which I think you have to see in person to understand their charm. Non-pretentious and lacking any irony, the paintings are mundane and familiar in a way that brings comfort.
Sylvia Plimack Mangold Tristram Landsdowne’s windowsill paintings are mind-bending. The intricate realness, coupled with their oddness, creates a new set of reality. The paintings are even more impressive because the medium is watercolour. Not only do they play with depth, but even the textures (watercolour to look like oil paint) are deceiving.
Tristram Lansdowne, Barometric InKline, 2023 Van Maltese’s show at Cooper Cole a couple of years ago revolved around the notion of trompe l'œil. From the exhibition text: “Trompe l’oeil device brings into context the story of Giotto’s fly. In Giorgio Vasari’s “Lives” (1550) – It is written that while Giotto was studying under Cimabue in Florence, he painted an extremely realistic fly on the nose of a completed portrait by Cimabue. Upon returning to the studio, Cimabue attempted to shoo the fly away numerous times before realizing he has been tricked by Giotto’s ability to render such a likeness to the real thing.”
Cynthia Talmadge’s booth with 56 Henry at Art Basel Miami was a trompe l'œil dialled up a few notches. The entire booth became part of the painting—where did one end and the other begin?
Cynthia Talmadge, Half Light at Art Basel, 56 Henry.
Art News This Week
Speaking of trompe l'œil, I saw Don Giovanni at the Canadian Opera Company last night. The set design turned trompe l'œil on its head over and over again. Don Giovani is such a criminal. I highly recommend the opera if you’re in Toronto!
This GQ profile on Anna Weyant is a case study in the contemporary art market. It captures how auctions can impact an artist’s pricing and the role of a gallery in protecting that. I am firmly team Anna Weyant.
Speaking of which, Art Net reported that Weyant and Gagosian have split. This is typically more gossipy than what I like to share, but it's applicable since it relates to the above profile.
The Frick is opening 14 bars, and the collective response has been: what??I have no clue how this is even possible. Why not open a single bar? While I don’t know how it will work, I will visit and report back.
Another Indigenous curator has left the AGO. “Taqralik Partridge quietly left her role as associate curator of Indigenous art, focusing on Inuit art, according to The Globe and Mail. Partridge’s departure leaves the AGO with no curators in charge of Indigenous art.” Not good.
The roster for The Whitney Biennial has been announced. It’s nice to see a few Canadians on the list. I’m especially excited that Lotus Kang’s work will be included.
I did agree with this article that asked: “Why Do Biennial Curators Still Talk Like This?” It’s true—a lot of press releases use a lot of words to say nothing. I always find I/people revert to art speak when they don’t know what they’re talking about.
Here’s a fun newsletter post: a collection of vintage art t-shirts. I wanted the weird Rembrandt tee, but it was already sold out.
That’s all for today :) Thank you for all your messages from last week—and sorry for the delayed responses! xx Tatum
I’ve watched and rewatched the margiela show a hundred times since it happened! So much magic. Loved this newsletter and the overlaps between fashion and art!
Regarding International Art English (IAE), I've always used the guiding words of a former mentor when writing press releases or working with emerging artists and curators: what are the pieces I'm going to see, what are (some of) the materials? After years in the Canadian Artist Run Centre trenches, I shudder to read curatorial texts and exhibition releases/ proposals but also love blowing a gasket and sharing the particularly absurd ones with friends. Curatorial speak often betrays some insecurities, frankly. Often too, this lack of directness transfers over to the working experience as well—maybe a case of an oroboros in action...