1-20 of 379 Results  for:

  • Fashion, Jewellery, and Body Art x
Clear all

Article

Adam, Henri-Georges  

(b Paris, Jan 14, 1904; d La Clarté, Brittany, Aug 27, 1967).

French sculptor, printmaker and tapestry designer. His father was a jeweller, and after his return from World War I in 1918 Adam worked in his studio and learnt how to engrave. At the same time he studied drawing at the Ecole Germain-Pilon and read Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal, which was to have a great influence on him. In 1925 he attended evening classes at a school of drawing in Montparnasse. From 1928 to 1934 he started to produce prints and became associated with André Breton, Louis Aragon and Paul Eluard, although he was never greatly influenced by them. His early prints, reminiscent of the work of George Grosz, were mostly designed as social satire, mocking the myths surrounding patriotism, the family and religion, as in When Papa is Patriotic (1935). In 1933 he designed the costumes and scenery for Hans Schlumberg’s Miracle à Verdun performed at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris. His first exhibition of prints was held in ...

Article

Adrian  

Ann Poulson

(Gilbert) [Greenburg, Adrian Adolph]

(b Naugatuck, CT, March 3, 1903; d Los Angeles, CA, Sept 13, 1959).

American costume and fashion designer. Adrian is best known for his costume designs for Hollywood films and his signature women’s suits (see fig.). Adrian was educated at the School for Fine and Applied Arts (now Parsons School of Design) in New York and Paris. He began his career in New York by designing costumes for Irving Berlin’s Music Box Revue of 1921. It was through his work on Broadway that he met the costume designer Natacha Rambova, wife of the screen idol Rudolph Valentino, and began designing costumes for films. He arrived in Los Angeles in 1924 and by 1926 was working for the director Cecil B. DeMille, who brought him to Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) in 1928. When his contract with DeMille ended, Adrian signed with MGM, where he would remain as head costume designer until 1942. At MGM, Adrian dressed stars such as Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Norma Shearer and Jeanette McDonald. Although it was his designs for Garbo, in which he was careful not to distract from her natural beauty, that first brought him fame, it was his creations for Joan Crawford that made him a household name....

Article

Adsett, Sandy  

John Hovell

(b Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay, NZ, Aug 27, 1939).

Maori painter, carver, weaver, costume and stage designer. His involvement with art began at Te Aute Maori Boys’ College (1954–7), Hawke’s Bay, Waipawa County, and continued with formal art training at Ardmore Teachers’ College (1958–9) and at Dunedin Teachers’ College (1960), where he trained as an art specialist. He subsequently worked for the Department of Education as an arts and crafts adviser and served on committees for national art education policies, the Historic Places Trust (with particular reference to Maori sites), art museums and tribal committees (dealing with traditional and customary art forms and architecture). He helped to promote contemporary developments in Maori arts for community buildings, meeting houses, churches and public sites, serving on private and governmental commissions. In his own work he maintains a balance between the conservation of older traditional materials and forms of Maori arts and the experimental use of new materials, such as composite chipboard, synthetic dyes, plastic-coated basketry fibres and composite, laminated board. His painted and woven-fibre works are notable for their rich but subtle colours and controlled sense of line. They vary in size from complex architectural installations or stage designs for the Royal New Zealand Ballet to designs for postage stamps. At Te Huki Meeting House (...

Article

Africa: Body arts  

Cornelius O. Adepegba and Joanne B. Eicher

In Africa body arts, an integral part of dressing the body, are widely varied and include both permanent and temporary modifications of the body’s contours and surface (see also Africa: Dress). The head, neck, hair, teeth, nose, ears, lips, trunk and limbs may all be decorated or in some way altered for aesthetic or ritual purposes. Evidence of the antiquity of some of these body arts can be seen in Saharan rock art of c. 5000 bc, in Egyptian and Nubian mummies dating from c. 1800 bc, and in Nok terracotta sculpture (c. 500 bcad 200) and Igbo–Ukwu metalwork (c. ad 900) from Nigeria. The sculptural traditions of the more recent past often provide rich documentation of body arts practices. Although Euro-American practices and cosmetics are now employed in Africa, local customs of dressing the hair and painting, scenting, oiling, tattooing or cutting the skin continue to be performed in many areas and contexts....

Article

Africa: Dress  

Margret Carey, Joanne B. Eicher, and Joanne Bubolz Eicher

In the broadest sense the art of African dress involves totally or partially covering the body with garments, accessories, paint and jewellery and/or modifying the body itself (see Africa: Body arts). Both body modifications and body supplements involve manipulating colour, texture, shape, volume, scent and sound. For many Africans, to dress well involves proper decorum and elegant style. Display of appropriate apparel, cosmetics and coiffure is often accompanied by magnificent carriage, graceful movement, fastidious toilette and immaculate garments.

See also Africa

The understanding of African dress as an art form requires a consideration of both single items and total ensembles. Occasionally, only a single item is used to adorn the body of an individual, for example a string of beads around the waist. In such a case the texture, colour and shape of the beads, whether of seeds, pods, shells or glass, are judged in the context of the texture and colour of the skin and the body shape. African dress ensembles range from simple to complex. A simple ensemble may consist of a wrapper, body paint and uncomplicated hairdo; a complex one may combine several richly decorated garments, an intricate coiffure, opulent jewellery and other accessories. Both single items and total ensembles may have an additive, cumulative character; examples include clusters of beads, layers of cloth or layers of jewellery. Such clusters and layers are often necessary components, adding the sounds of rustling fabrics and jingling jewellery to the ensemble’s visual impact. Layering of garments also provides the effect of bulk, as does the use of heavy fabric. The importance of an individual’s social position may be visually reinforced by the size of his or her ensemble. The robes of a ruler are often massive, as is the wrapper set of a powerful and successful trader. Moreover, such accessories as canes, walking-sticks, horsehair switches, umbrellas, fans, purses, handbags, handkerchiefs, linguist staffs and tusks are often needed to complete an ensemble....

Article

Africa: Regalia  

Nancy Ingram Nooter

In Africa regalia include the raiment that adorns a ruler, the insignia carried by a ruler and the emblematic devices that support or shelter the ruler as symbols of royal power. The interaction between ruler and emblems glorifies both the royal personage and the reign itself. Art objects commissioned by a king or queen, together with royal vestments, headgear, jewellery, thrones, stools, special weapons or other implements, constitute the regalia that embody the strength and spirit of each monarch’s rule, and they are intimately involved in the exercise of leadership. The regalia of the Asante king, for example, are symbols of the kingly office, chronicles of royal history and evidence of traditional religion, cosmology and social organization (see Kyerematen, p. 1).

In many African kingdoms a concept of divine right exists, wherein a ruler is chosen by virtue of his or her special relationship with the deities. There are, however, other modes of succession to office relating to the political position of a candidate, clan membership, consequences of gift exchange or victory in warfare. Whether considered divine or semi-divine, all rulers in Africa are perceived as larger than life and, as such, are vested at their coronations with material symbols expressing their rank and claim to power. Certain possessions are intended to reinforce this image both physically and metaphorically, thus legitimizing and validating the ruler’s authority and right to rule....

Article

Akhalgori Hoard  

V. Ya. Petrukhin

Pieces of jewellery dating to the 6th–4th centuries bc from a ruined burial site, discovered in 1908, at Sadzeguri, a ravine on the River Ksani in eastern Georgia. It includes numerous gold items: huge neck pendants, bracelets, necklaces, signet-rings, belts, earrings; silver and bronze vessels; and gold, silver and bronze items from horses’ harnesses. In its manufacture, its forging, chasing and filigree, and its ornament (e.g. rosettes and palmettes), the jewellery displays a combination of local, Ionic and Achaemenid traditions. Of particular note are the filigree or chased gold pendants in the form of teams of horses and the gold rosettes on which stamp decoration is soldered....

Article

Alaïa, Azzedine  

Pamela Elizabeth Grimaud

(b Tunis, Feb 2, 1935).

French fashion designer, of Tunisian birth. Alaïa is renowned for his ‘second skin’ fashions and masterful cutting techniques (see fig.). Christened the ‘King of Cling’ by fashion journalists, Alaïa rose to prominence in the 1980s following years of realizing commissions for a loyal and select clientele. His designs are modern, overtly feminine in their celebration of the female form and, in Alaïa’s own words: ‘not sexy, voluptuous’. Alaïa’s sculpted fashions have been known to render other designers’ fashions unwearable—they simply feel too large in comparison.

Born in southern Tunisia, Alaïa was raised by his maternal grandparents and at the age of 15 undertook the study of sculpture. Realizing soon after that sculpture was not his calling, and serendipitously passing a dressmaker’s window on his way to classes, he saw a sign for an assistant. He was hired for the task of finishing hems at five francs apiece. Alaïa rose quickly to become a favourite of Tunisian high society, copying for the local clientele the work of the great ...

Article

Amethyst  

Gordon Campbell

Article

Amulet  

Sian Jay

Object worn or placed somewhere special in the belief that it has magico-religious powers, such as to protect against danger, cure disease, give strength or promote good fortune. In this sense it is more or less synonymous with ‘talisman’. Amulets are commonly worn as jewellery or carried within the clothing, but they may also be incorporated into such objects as weapons or placed within buildings or near crops. They have been treated as goods to trade in several cultures. A charm (i.e. magical formula) may be recited over an amulet, which may then itself be referred to as a charm. The term ‘amulet’ also denotes a medical or prophylactic treatment and a substance used in medicine.

Scholarly views on how and why amulets are perceived by their users to have power include the theory of ‘sympathetic magic’ based on similarity and contiguity. The perception here would be that like produces like—that intrinsically connected things act on each other even if the contact is broken. ...

Article

Andreyev, Nikolay (ii)  

A. N. Lavrentiev

(Platonovich)

(b Serpukhov, Moscow district, Oct 1, 1882; d Serpukhov, April 29, 1947).

Russian photographer. He was the son of a hairdresser. In 1901 Andreyev studied painting and, at the same time, ‘art’ photography. In his later works he successfully combined the qualities of easel painting and photography, and he experimented widely with printing techniques involving oil pigment, bromoil and gum arabic. He was a master of delicate, lyrical landscapes, striving for the broadest tonal generalization of forms in his depictions of the countryside of middle Russia. Among his most famous landscape photographs are the coarse-grained Crimean Landscape (1929; see Morozov, no. 140) and Into the Blizzard (1930; see Morozov, no. 141). The same rich tonality and picturesque quality are also present in his genre photographs. From 1906 he successfully exhibited at national and international photographic exhibitions, where he was awarded many diplomas and gold medals.

S. Morozov: Tvorcheskaya fotografiya [Creative photography] (Moscow, 1986) L. Ukhtomskaya and A. Fomin: Antologia soveskoy fotografii, 1917–70...

Article

Anjar  

Hafez K. Chehab

[Andjar, ‛Anjar, ‛Ayn al-Jarr]

Late Antique and early Islamic settlement in the Beqa‛a Valley of Lebanon, 56 km east of Beirut. Excavations since 1953 have revealed a cardinally orientated rectangular enclosure (370×310 m) with dressed stone walls. Each side has regularly spaced half-round towers and a central gate. Two colonnaded avenues intersecting at right angles under a tetrapylon link the gates, a plan recalling that of Roman foundations in the Levant and in North Africa. Within the enclosure are the remains of two palaces and the foundations of three others in stone and hard mortar, as well as a mosque, two baths (one paved with mosaics) and a well. The western area has streets intersecting at right angles and housing units with private courts, and the eastern area has open fields beyond the palaces and mosque. The construction of the greater palace in alternating courses of stone and brick is a technique well known in Byzantine architecture. Reused architectural elements from the Roman and early Christian periods, some bearing Greek inscriptions, are found all over the site. A large quantity of archivolts and mouldings, carved with vegetal, geometrical and figural motifs, was found among the ruined palaces. Texts suggest that Anjar was founded in the time of the Umayyad caliph al-Walid (...

Article

Aquamarine  

Gordon Campbell

Article

Arce, Pedro de  

Marcus Burke

(bapt Madrid, March 1, 1607; d after 1678).

Spanish collector and patron. He was a court functionary closely connected with commerce in precious objects, silver, gold and jewellery. His interesting picture collection indicates his decidedly Italianate taste and connoisseurship. It grew from a modest but select group of works in 1643 to a large collection in 1664 of tapestries, jewellery, objets d’art and over 200 paintings, including Diego de Velázquez’s ‘The Weavers’ (Fable of Arachne) (c. 1657; Madrid, Prado), first recorded in an inventory of Arce’s collection in 1664, and a Holy Trinity by Jusepe de Ribera (possibly the painting of 1632–6; Madrid, Prado). Arce was also a patron of the Italo-Spanish painter Angelo Nardi (he had five to eight works by 1657).

The extensive documents of Arce’s financial affairs offer a glimpse into Spanish middle-class life in the 17th century. Included are matters relating to his custody of the children of his first wife by a previous marriage; the elaborate arrangements separating his estate from those of his two wives, their children by him and by previous husbands, and other relatives; and the attempts of his son to enter the ranks of the lesser aristocracy....

Article

Armani, Giorgio  

Diane Maglio

(b Piacenza, July 11, 1934).

Italian fashion designer. Armani was dubbed the ‘Sexy Tailor’ by the American fashion press for sartorial innovations he introduced in menswear. He brought sensual drape to traditional suit coats by eliminating rigid interlinings that had shaped and restricted men’s clothing in the 1970s. To complement his new softly-tailored coats, he created short, supple, collared shirts and textural, patterned ties. Armani’s impact on menswear went beyond unstructured sewing techniques to include a serene colour palette inspired by the Italian artist Giorgio Morandi. The neutral earth tones included an inventive grey–beige (‘greige’), moss, mushroom and smoky grey–blue, tones not seen before in menswear. Armani claimed to be ‘the stylist without colour’. Armani also brought a feminine touch to menswear and eventually expanded his design aesthetic to women’s clothing, bringing a powerful look to women’s fashion. His minimal modernism in cut and fit, while retaining maximum impact in silhouette and colour, stimulated the fashion imagination of Hollywood, retailers, journalists and customers of both sexes....

Article

Art Deco  

Suzanne Tise

Descriptive term applied to a style of decorative arts that was widely disseminated in Europe and the USA during the 1920s and 1930s. Derived from the style made popular by the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925, the term has been used only since the late 1960s, when there was a revival of interest in the decorative arts of the early 20th century. Since then the term ‘Art Deco’ has been applied to a wide variety of works produced during the inter-war years, and even to those of the German Bauhaus. But Art Deco was essentially of French origin, and the term should, therefore, be applied only to French works and those from countries directly influenced by France.

The development of the Art Deco style, or the Style moderne as it was called at the time, closely paralleled the initiation of the 1925...

Article

Art Nouveau  

Michèle Lavallée

[Fr.: ‘new art’]

Decorative style of the late 19th century and the early 20th that flourished principally in Europe and the USA. Although it influenced painting and sculpture, its chief manifestations were in architecture and the decorative and graphic arts, the aspects on which this survey concentrates. It is characterized by sinuous, asymmetrical lines based on organic forms; in a broader sense it encompasses the geometrical and more abstract patterns and rhythms that were evolved as part of the general reaction to 19th-century historicism. There are wide variations in the style according to where it appeared and the materials that were employed.

Art Nouveau has been held to have had its beginnings in 1894 or 1895. A more appropriate date would be 1884, the year the progressive group Les XX was founded in Belgium, and the term was used in the periodical that supported it, Art Moderne: ‘we are believers in Art Nouveau’. The origin of the name is usually attributed to ...

Article

Arts and Crafts Movement  

Alan Crawford

Informal movement in architecture and the decorative arts that championed the unity of the arts, the experience of the individual craftsman, and the qualities of materials and construction in the work itself.

The Arts and Crafts Movement developed in the second half of the 19th century and lasted well into the 20th, drawing its support from progressive artists, architects and designers, philanthropists, amateurs, and middle-class women seeking work in the home. They set up small workshops apart from the world of industry, revived old techniques, and revered the humble household objects of pre-industrial times. The movement was strongest in the industrializing countries of northern Europe and in the USA, and it can best be understood as an unfocused reaction against industrialization. Although quixotic in its anti-industrialism, it was not unique; indeed it was only one among several late 19th-century reform movements, such as the Garden City movement, vegetarianism, and folksong revivals, that set the Romantic values of nature and folk culture against the artificiality of modern life....

Article

Ashbee, C(harles) R(obert)  

Alan Crawford

(b Isleworth, Middx, May 17, 1863; d Godden Green, Kent, May 23, 1942).

English designer, writer, architect and social reformer . He was educated at King’s College, Cambridge. As a young man he was deeply influenced by the teachings of John Ruskin and William Morris, and particularly by their vision of creative workmanship in the Middle Ages; such a vision made work in modern times seem like mechanical drudgery. Ashbee played many parts and might be thought a dilettante; but his purpose was always to give a practical expression to what he had learnt from Ruskin and Morris. An intense and rather isolated figure, he found security in a life dedicated to making the world a better place.

In 1888, while he was training to be an architect in the office of G. F. Bodley and Thomas Garner (1839–1906), Ashbee set up the Guild and School of Handicraft in the East End of London. The School lasted only until 1895, but the Guild, a craft workshop that combined the ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement with a romantic, apolitical socialism, was to be the focus of Ashbee’s work for the next 20 years. There were five guildsmen at first, making furniture and base metalwork. In ...

Article

Assyrian Revival  

Frederick N. Bohrer

Style of the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th, inspired by Assyrian artefacts of the 9th to 7th centuries bc. These were first brought to public attention through the excavations by Paul-Emile Botta (1802–70) at Khorsabad and Austen Henry Layard at Nimrud in the 1840s. By 1847 both the Louvre in Paris and the British Museum in London had begun to display these objects, the size and popularity of which were such that the Louvre created a separate Musée des Antiquités Orientales, while the British Museum opened its separate Nineveh Gallery in 1853. The same popularity, fuelled by Layard’s best-selling Nineveh and its Remains (London, 1849) and Botta’s elaborate Monument de Ninive (Paris, 1849–50), led to further explorations elsewhere in Mesopotamia.

Assyrian revivalism first appeared in England rather than France, which was then in political turmoil. The earliest forms of emulation can be found in the decorative arts, such as the ‘Assyrian style’ jewellery that was produced in England from as early as ...