Book Review: History of Beauty

There is no singular definition of beauty. Through history, the concept of what is considered beautiful has evolved and that changing ideal has been documented by artists, poets and authors. In my quest to understand the concept of beauty, I read the book "History of Beauty" by Umberto Eco.

This monumental tome seeks to answer the questions: What is beauty? What is art? What is taste and fashion? Umberto Eco explores the changing concept of beauty in Western civilization from the ancient Greeks to the present time through extracts from literature, poetry and philosophy as well as paintings, sculptures and photographs.

The seventeen chapters documenting the history of beauty include:
1. The Aesthetic Ideal in Ancient Greece
2. Apollonian and Dionysiac
3. Beauty as Proportion and Harmony
4. Light and Color in the Middle Ages
5. The Beauty of Monsters
6. From the Pastourelle to the Donna Angelicata
7. Magic Beauty between the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
8. Ladies and Heroes
9. From Grace to Disquieting Beauty
10. Reason and Beauty
11. The Sublime
12. Romantic Beauty
13. The Religion of Beauty
14. The New Object
15. The Beauty of Machines
16. From Abstract Forms to the Depths of Material
17. The Beauty and the Media

One of the most fascinating parts of the book are the comparative tables which visually illustrate and summarize how the concept of beauty has evolved through art over time. For example on the comparative table for "Clothed Venus", the ideal woman is presented from the seventh century BC in the form of a sculpture called Auxerre Kore (Musee de Louvre) and moves through each century to 1960 with Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita. Included on this table are some of my favourite artworks such as:
Raphael's La Donna Velata (1514, Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti)
Francois Bouchers Madame de Pompadour (1756, Alte Pinakothek Museum)
Egon Schieles Seated Woman with Brent Knee, (1917, Narodni Galerie)

Other comparative tables include: Nude Venus, Nude Adonis, Clothed Adonis, Face and Hair of Venus, Face and Hair of Adonis, Madonna, Jesus, Kings, and Queens.

One of the most surprising things that I gleened from reading this book is that ugliness is a requirement for beauty. It is in fact the contrast between the two that allows us to recognize beauty. "William of Auvergne said that variety increases the Beauty of the universe, and thus even the things that strike us as unpleasant are necessary to the universal order, including monsters." (page 148)

This is a scholarly book that presents a comprehensive analysis of the ideals of beauty as presented through art and literature. Richly illustrated and written in elegant prose, it should be read by every serious student of art and fashion.


"A beautiful thing is something that would make us happy if it were ours, but remains beautiful even if it belongs to someone else." (page 10)

Title: History of Beauty
Edited by: Umberto Eco
Translated by: Alastair McEwen
Publisher: Rizzoli, New York (2004)
Category: Non-fiction, art
Number of Pages: 438

1966

Details of orange paper dress ensemble from 1966, copyright Ingrid Mida 2009
Mixed media (Paper, ribbon, thread)


Details from blue paper dress ensemble from 1966 copyright Ingrid Mida 2009
Mixed media (Paper, ribbon, thread)

Unlike the prevailing view in the contemporary art world, I believe that art does not need to be provocative or ugly to have meaning. Earlier this spring, I created an artwork (for a prestigious competition) in which I wrestled with my soul over whether or not I could produce shocking and ugly work. After many sleepless nights, beauty won out. I knew then that I would not be one of the chosen. I've tried to make peace with that and decided to share selections from that submission.

This is my artist statement from the work which is called "1966".

Our choice of clothing conveys unspoken messages about our self-image and our place in society. My artwork, which uses paper as a medium to represent the ephemeral nature of fashion trends, examines the meaning inherent in women's clothing.

With the birth of the feminist movement in the 1960s, women began to question their traditional roles as wives and mothers. Fashion mirrored the social and cultural upheaval of that decade and women were freed from the constraints of highly structured clothing.

In 1966, the year that the phrase "women's liberation" first appeared in print, the disposable paper dress was created as a marketing tool. These cheap and sexy dresses were an instant hit and symbolic of the new levels of liberty women were achieving in the workplace and at home. Bikinis, representative of new sexual freedoms, often came in ensembles with matching dress, hat, and shoes, and were sometimes even worn as bridal wear.

This work called "1966" celebrates a pivotal year in our recent history in which there was a convergence of the women's movement with fashion.

Exhibition Review: Judy Chicago in Thread

Although Judy Chicago cannot sew and does not know how to do needlework, she has made a career out of art created by women volunteers using traditional forms of handwork such as embroidery, tapestry, quilting and cross-stitching. Perhaps best known for her landmark project The Dinner Party (1979) in which she presented a table set for dinner with an imaginary guest list of famous women from history, Chicago established feminist iconography as a subject worthy of a professional art practice.

What if Women Ruled the World: Judy Chicago in Thread opened at the Textile Museum of Canada on February 11, 2009 and continues until September 7th. Curated by Allyson Mitchell and co-produced with the Art Gallery of Calgary, the stated intent of the show is to offer a retrospective of Judy Chcago's textile-based art from 1971 to today. The question posed by the thematic title of the show is supplemented by two other questions: "Would God be Female? and "Would there be equal parenting?"

The exhibition is organized around Chicago's projects including The Birth Project (1985), The Holocaust Project (1993) and The Resolution Project (2000). As well, there is one work from 1971 and a mixed media piece from 2000 called Find it in Your Heart.

To see a Judy Chicago textile piece up close is a lesson in innovation in mixed media. Unimaginable combinations of paint, embroidery, applique, quilting, macrame, crochet, beading, printing, cross stitching, and needlepoint all come together in a swirl of vibrant colour and energy. Although the effect is anything but subtle, the considerable hours of work that went in to the creation of such intricate handwork is evident.

My favourite piece called Earth Birth is an image of "bringing forth light, a visual representation of early creation myths that posit a female deity as a source of all existence." This air-brush painting and quilting on fabric by Jacquelyn Moore Alexander and Judy Chicago from 1983 has a muted palette of black, silver and blue. The elegant refinement of this piece is unique compared to the other works in the exhibition and undoubtedly that is why it has singular appeal for me. I prefer subtlety of message and an elegance of line and colour which are not tenets of Chicago's work.

Other highlights of the exhibition include two videos about Chicago and her cadre of volunteers. To hear an artist speak about their work adds to the depth of understanding one has about their art. In this case, since there are sometimes hundreds of volunteers involved in a Judy Chicago project, these unheralded women were finally given a voice.

In Resolution: A Stitch in Time, directed and edited by Kate Amend and Johanna Demetrakas (2000), Judy Chicago and the women volunteers explain the collaborative process on The Resolution Project. According to Chicago, she wanted to create life-affirming images based on proverbs that state basic human values since "proverbs are the way different generations pass on their wisdom". Many of the volunteers expressed joy and a sense of community in working to complete Chicago's artistic vision. As well, some treasured the sense of purpose that it gave them "to work on something bigger than themselves" and "to have their work displayed in a museum".

In a video about The Birth Project directed by Vivian Kleinnam Productions (1985), Chicago said that there are very few birth images in the history of art and she wanted to reclaim history for women. She used the birth process "as a metaphor for creation in the largest sense". There were 150 volunteers who used a variety of needlework techniques to create 84 pieces related to all aspects of birth of which nine of those pieces are displayed.

Twenty artworks are exhibited in the retrospective of Judy Chicago's work at the Textile Museum. The singular element that does not fit with the curator's intent is the 1971 photograph called The Red Flag in which a woman removes a bloody tampon from her vagina. To me, this photograph is representative of art that a strident feminist produces for shock value alone. This ugly and disturbing photograph is not textile art and has no place in the show even though it is represetative of Chicago's early explorations in feminist iconography. The extensive range of the textile-based artwork that is on display at the Textile Museum is proof that Judy Chicago is capable of expressing meaningful and positive messages through her art. Without this photograph, the answers to the questions "What if Women Ruled the World?" and "Would God be Female?" would have been self-evident. Instead, I left the exhibition uncertain of what I wanted the answer to be.

When Women Rule the World
February 11 - September 7, 2009
Textile Museum of Canada
55 Centre Avene (St. Patrick subway)
Toronto, Ontario
416-599-5321