Helena Rubinstein in front of a montage of some of the many
portraits she commissioned throughout her life, 1958. Helena Rubinstein
Foundation Archives, Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY, Gladys Marcus
Library, Special Collections -
Helena
Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power opened to the public on October 31, marking
the first time a museum has explored this fascinating historic figure. Through
the cosmetics empire and art collections Rubinstein built, Madame (as she was
widely known) helped break down the status quo of taste, blurring boundaries
between commerce, art, fashion, beauty, and design. Even in advance of the
grand opening, Beauty Is Power had already attracted adulation from the
press, including feature coverage in W magazine and The New York
Times. The early buzz in these and other publications speaks volumes about the
subject’s allure. The display reunites numerous selections from Madame’s famed
art collection, which were dispersed at auction after her death, in 1965. The
show begins with several portraits of the woman herself, by artists such as
Graham Sutherland and Marie Laurencin. Later on, there are a dozen of the
drawings Madame pressed Pablo Picasso to make of her.
Installation view of the exhibition Helena Rubinstein: Beauty
Is Power, October 31, 2014 – March 22, 2015. © The Jewish Museum, NY. Photo by:
David Heald.
Sculptures
by Elie Nadelman, one of Madame’s favorite artists, help to evoke the modern,
intellectual atmosphere Rubinstein cultivated in her many salons. Her
innovative and astute collecting of African and Oceanic sculpture is
represented in the show through more than 30 significant works. Photographs,
fashion shoots, beauty ads, and vintage cosmetics provide windows on her lavish
homes and groundbreaking business.
The miniature period rooms she loved to
collect have been meticulously reassembled here. And to demonstrate Madame’s
place as a style icon, Beauty Is Power also presents highlights from her
collections of couture clothing and jewelry. Above all, embedded in this rich,
wide-ranging exhibition are enlightening insights about history, women’s
self-expression, and the pivotal changes wrought by modernism. ”She proved
that it wasn’t what you were born with that counted but what you did with it,”
Holly Brubach writes in the pages of W. In the Times, art critic and
journalist Karen Rosenberg calls Beauty Is Power a “stimulating exhibition” and
“a master class in modernism-as-marketing, one that comes with a strong female
– even feminist – perspective on 20th-century visual culture.” Helena
Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power is on view at the Jewish Museum through March 22,
2015.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario