Table Of Content

I I I - FrequertlU dslred 0uestiorts tlhU is the Toled0 ltluseum 0f flrl displotlin0 cl0thin0? tlho is 0eoffretl Beette? Like buildings, clothes form the environment in which Geoffrey Beene is one of the most innovative ,,,u? w;' we live our lives. Also like buildings, clothes can be clothing designers of the 20th century. After simple, functional, and without any pretensions beginning work in New York during the post-World or they can be something more. A War ll boom, he designed garments that ex- garage is just a building in which we pressed a particularly American attitude toward store a cat; Frank Gehry's Univer- clothing. His inf luence on American clothing sity of Toledo Center for the Visual design spread during the 1960s and 1970s and he Arts, on the other hand, is more continues to inspire designers today. than just a building in which art l{hU did the ll'|fl choose 0eoffreU Beette's clothing? classes are taught. lt directs ,'{ our vision and channels our The human body, both male and female, has long tt emotions, leading us to a been a subject in Western art. Through the centuries, artists have shown the human figure different understanding of clothed and nude in a variety of poses and the space in which we settings. ln ancrent Greek sculpture, it was at first live our lives. lt's a work considered inappropriate to show the female body of art. in the nude. lnstead, sculptors revealed the It's the same with female figure by the way clothing clung to it. A clothing. The clothes sense of mood, status, or motion was conveyed we wear to clean out by the style of clothing, the pattern of folds, and the garage are meant the way folds were drawn across the body. ln to be practical. The many ways Geoffrey Beene uses actual clothing clothes we choose on real female bodies to convey the same ideas for work or social as ancient Greek sculptors working in marble or occasions, however, bronze. are often intended to .# When Geoffrey Beene began work in shape the impression the 1950's, most women's clothing was given its others have of us. shape by darts, side seams, and padding. Beene Like a fine piece of L broke with this tradition and shaped garments architecture, fine 0clober lfl, I9$7 with tucks and pleats and cut garments in panels clothing channels the that wrapped around the body instead of bisecting lhrou0h vision of others and it front and back. ln addition to producing expresses our sense Januarq 4, lg90 garments with a softer and more natural line, such of self and our values. techniques gave Beene a whole vocabulary of al lhe Ioledo When clothing shapes, forms, and manipulations of the cloth. attempts to express l,luseum of flrt Beene used this vocabulary to create a mood or the ideas, vision, and convey a sense of motion. !n Beene's hands, values of a society, it The exhibition was organized by the Museum of Art, Rhode lsland Schoolof becomes an art clothing design became an expressive art form. Design, Providence. The Toledo showing ogef ntheirso uesx hcibointitorinb uist iosunp fproormte dth eb yA art form. And art forms Museum Aides. should be celebrated Evening Dress, Fall 1986, Wool; knit with polyester and silk panne-velvet in museums. insets, Geoffrey Beene Archives, Photo courtesy of Andrew Eccles. 0lossdrl| - hiAS rhe diagonat across d0UblgCl0th- -Afabric produced by J[ld[gldSS0 -- A doubtectoth or a length of fabric. weaving two layers compound fabric with one above the other, a "blistered" surface. b[llgf0 -- A loose, waist-length and which at times jacket open at the intersect to produce a pd[l[l0 -- A specia I f in ish f or f ront. pattern or design. velvet or satin that produces a high --- bOX plgdt - A doubte pteat dtdpg -- The way a particular luster. formed by two cloth falls or hangs; plgdt facing folds. Trade term for - A fotd in ctoth or arranging and pinning other material, made C0llJllfg - The sector of the cloth over a form to by doubling the fashion industry that create the design of material upon itself desrgns and produces the intended garment and then pressing custom-made a nd/or stitch ing into clothing for private place. customers; usually refers to the most qUilling - Stitchins in a pattern expensive Paris through two or more d ress-desig n layers of cloth, establishments generally with batting (houses), where made of cotton, wool, u n ique garments a re down, or synthetic made to order with fiber sandwiched several fittings. between the layers. - --- CllI The style or lg0dq-t0-llJgdf The sector of the silhouette of a fashion industry that garment. mass-produces clothing in standard dort Sewing term for a sizes; also called pret V-shaped tuck made d porter. to adjust the f it of a tUClt garment to the body A f tattened pleat or fold, especially a very narrow one, stitched in place. Evening Dress, Fall 1975, Silk; knit jersey. Geoffrey Beene Archive. Photo courtesy of Andrew Eccles. flrt in flmericd Folloutirtg hrlorld l,{or Il Geoffrey Beene began his career as weavers, glassmakers, and furniture W an independent designer in New York City makers were all beginning to consider in the decade after World War ll. lt was their work as art forms rather than simply during this period that America gained its the production of fine objects with status as one of the world's leading centers essentially functional purposes. of artistic production and New York became ln the Toledo lVluseum of its artistic capital. London and Berlin, which Art this change is perhaps had been major western art centers prior to most evident among the war, had suffered great war damage, glass artists. A glass and the economies of Britain, France, and worker or designer of Germany had been badly set back. New the late 1 gth or early York had suffered no damage and had even 20th century, such benefitted from the transport of soldiers as Louis Comfort and mllitary supplies to Europe. At the end Tiffany, created of the war, after a brief period of adjust- bea utif u I ment, the American economy boomed with objects that the re-entry of soldiers into the crvilian labor had functional market and the easing of wartime purposes. Glass restrictions. As America's financial and artrsts today create commercial center, New York profited f rom glass sculptures that the country's growing economic and frequently do not have political importance. utilitarian roles. Geoffrey Beene's evolution as a clothing The American art world had also been designer took place during the influenced by the chaos that swept across same period as the Studio Craft Europe in the late 1930s. Prominent artists movement. Both Beene and the who opposed Hitler fled Europe to America Studio Craft movement drew from and some stayed after the war's end. ln the same atmosphere of freedom New York City after the war, these and innovation that characterized expatriate European artists were joined by the post-war period. Although American artists. Together they formed the Beene's designs still have the nucleus of a growing art center. Thus in functional purpose of clothing the New York during this period were gathered body, they go well beyond that role to an array of artists and a growing number of become expressive art forms. patrons who could afford to purchase their work. America was no longer a province of On the next page are some of the works the European art world. lt became the in the collection of The Toledo [Vuseum world's most influential art producer and of Art produced in America during this New York was its center. important period. As you leave Geoffrey Beene, these works can be seen in At the same time that the f ine arts in Galleries 5 through B and in the America were growing and maturing, the Glass Galleries. so-called craft arts were entering a period of reappraisal and change known as the Studio Craft movement. Ceramicists, Geoffrey Beene, American, Evening Dress, Spring 1990, Silk; knit with polyester and silk plain-weave insets. Geoffrey Beene Archive. Photo courtesy of Guzman. Post-l,ilor flmerirdn flrt in the l]'lfl Gallery 5 Jacob Lawrence (American) Barbershop (1 946) gouache on paper Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1 975.1 5 0nurnY 5 I Romare Bearden (Americanl GnnrnY Family Dinner (1968) Josef Albers collage on masonite (American, born Germany) Purchased with funds from the Homage to The Square: Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward white setting (1959) Drummond Libbey, 1992.17; oil on masonite @ Estate of Romare Bearden 1968 Gift of the Woodward Foundation in I memory of Sarah R. Woodward, 0nurnY wife of Stanley Woodward, 1 985.1 34 Harvey Littleton (Americanl Column lll (1969) 0nu,rnY 6 I 0nnrnY selenium glass with aluminum base Charles Eames, designer Louise Nevelson (Americanl, manufactured by Museum Purchase, 1970 .447 (American, born Russia) Evans Produsts Gompany SkV Presence (1 960) DWC Chair (1946-471 wood construction painted black Ash plywood, laminated and molded; Purchased with funds from the rubber shockmounts, 1 987.1 91 Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1986.22 [nnrnY 7 George Nelson (American) 0nu,rnY 0 Miniature Chest (1 954-63), walnut; Mark Rothko stained teak, enamel paint, brass, (American, born Russial porcelain, wallpaper Untitled (1960) Gift of the Johnson Family Furniture Fund, mrxed media on canvas 1 995.1 4 Purchased with funds from the Libbey 0mss 0nu.rnus, Upprn Lrurr Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond 0nuunv 7 Libbey, 1970.55 Dominick Labino (Americanl Willem de Kooning Emergence XV (19721 (American, born the Netherlands) glass, hot-worked, internal air trap, Lily Pond (1959), oil on canvas gold veiling Purchased with funds from the Libbey Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Dominick Labino, Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond 1987.137 Libbey, 1972.32 @ 1997 The Toledo Museum of Art