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Avant-Guardian Musings

  • Spring 2025
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“Art is an outlet toward regions which are not ruled by time and space”
— Marcel Duchamp

Avant-Guardian Musings is a curated space of ideas and information, resources, reviews and readings for undergraduate and graduate students studying modern and contemporary art history and visual art theory, film and photography studies, and the expanding field of visual culture and screen studies. For students currently enrolled in my courses or the field school, the blog and associated social media links also serve as a place of reflection and an extension of the ideas and visual material raised in lecture and seminar discussion.

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Blog
From the Archives | How (And Why) To Take Excellent Lecture Notes
From the Archives | How (And Why) To Take Excellent Lecture Notes
about 10 months ago
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
about 2 years ago
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
about 2 years ago
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
about 2 years ago
Top 10 Modern and Contemporary Art Exhibitions Worth Visiting In 2023
Top 10 Modern and Contemporary Art Exhibitions Worth Visiting In 2023
about 2 years ago

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Delighted to find these iconic Tom Ford Whitney’s deep in my closet over the weekend ✨☀️🕶️Anyone else remember these sunglasses from back in the day? I want to say these are well over 15 years old and they were a very big splurge, but I loved
Delighted to find these iconic Tom Ford Whitney’s deep in my closet over the weekend ✨☀️🕶️Anyone else remember these sunglasses from back in the day? I want to say these are well over 15 years old and they were a very big splurge, but I loved rediscovering and wearing them today. Great design is timeless. Invest in things you love— your future self will thank you✨ . . . #tomford #sunglasses #tomfordwhitney #whatiwore #shamelessselfie
If Seoul was a colour, it would be neon and bright, and if it was a shape, it would be curved and post-structural.
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#artanddesign #odetoacity #urban #seoul #korea #design #contemporaryart #architecture
If Seoul was a colour, it would be neon and bright, and if it was a shape, it would be curved and post-structural. . . . #artanddesign #odetoacity #urban #seoul #korea #design #contemporaryart #architecture
Visited the stunning Leeum Museum of Art today and took in the spatial delights of Korean architecture married to modern art. What I love most is how the familiar European and American “masters” (i.e. Rodin, Giacometti, Rauschenberg, Hess
Visited the stunning Leeum Museum of Art today and took in the spatial delights of Korean architecture married to modern art. What I love most is how the familiar European and American “masters” (i.e. Rodin, Giacometti, Rauschenberg, Hesse, Flavin, Rothko, Andre, Lewitt, Stella, etc…) are curated both in dialogue with Korean modern artists such as Lee Ufan and Kim Chong-yung, but also in juxtaposition to the beautiful natural setting that is showcased through large windows throughout the complex. A must see gallery if you visit Seoul. . . . #seoul #korea #modernart #contemporaryart #koreanart #arthistory
Flaneur for the day in Seoul ✨🇰🇷 A global city of high contrast, beauty, and living history around every corner.
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#seoul #korea #flaneur #daytripping #streetart #contemporaryart #modernart #urbanart #arthistory #urban #globalcity
Flaneur for the day in Seoul ✨🇰🇷 A global city of high contrast, beauty, and living history around every corner. . . . #seoul #korea #flaneur #daytripping #streetart #contemporaryart #modernart #urbanart #arthistory #urban #globalcity
Hello Seoul! 🇰🇷🛬✨안녕하세요 서울 Lucky me, I am incredibly excited to have arrived in South Korea today and staying smack dab in the middle of the stylish Gangnam District at the COEX Conference Centre. It is my first time in this beautiful city and I ca
Hello Seoul! 🇰🇷🛬✨안녕하세요 서울 Lucky me, I am incredibly excited to have arrived in South Korea today and staying smack dab in the middle of the stylish Gangnam District at the COEX Conference Centre. It is my first time in this beautiful city and I cannot wait to begin exploring, especially the contemporary art and design scene. I am here to attend and give a paper at the #IPSA2025 International Political Science Association World Congress, the largest global gathering of researchers and academics working on all things political and international relations oriented. IPSA as an academic association was founded under the auspices of UNESCO in 1949 and is devoted to the advancement of political science in all parts of the world and promotes collaboration between scholars in both established and emerging democracies. The 2025 Conference theme is “Resisting Autocratization in Polarized Societies” and I was invited to present a paper on my ongoing work on Trumpism, the neo avante-garde, and visual culture on a panel examining the role of cultural actors during periods of democratic backsliding. I only had a few hours after I arrived to my hotel to check out COEX, but I had to see the world famous library housed inside the shopping complex. It was a very cool sight for a book nerd like me 🤓 . . . #seoul #korea #southkorea #politicalscience #arthistory #academiclife #conference @kpuarts @kwantlenu

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© Dorothy Barenscott, Avant-Guardian Musings, and dorothybarenscott.com, 2010-2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Dorothy Barenscott, Avant-Guardian Musings, and dorothybarenscott.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

The Met Costume Institute provided several looks inside the Charles James exhibition via Instragram on the night of the Met Ball.  "Charles James: Beyond Fashion" continues through August 10th at the Metropolitan Musueum of Art.

The Met Costume Institute provided several looks inside the Charles James exhibition via Instragram on the night of the Met Ball.  "Charles James: Beyond Fashion" continues through August 10th at the Metropolitan Musueum of Art.

An Architect of Cloth: Charles James "Beyond Fashion" at the Met

May 08, 2014

Over the past several years, the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute has been attracting a great deal of interest for creating bold exhibitions focusing on the art of fashion. The Alexander McQueen "Savage Beauty" show in 2011 and last year's "Punk: Chaos to Couture" exhibition are especially outstanding for the kinds of conversations they sparked about the intersections between avant-garde fashion and modern/contemporary art. This year's selection of a seemingly traditional evening gown designer thus seemed an odd move for the museum. Charles James to the average person, or even those with some rudimentary knowledge of fashion history, is certainly not a designer that comes to mind as especially iconic or transgressive. But it is clear upon closer research and consideration that James was influential and well respected as a true artist and quiet innovator within the fashion industry.  In the New York Times this week, art critic Roberta Smith in reviewing the Met's exhibition described James' designs as equal to that of other innovators of the past century. "It reveals an artist" writes Smith "as interested in visual spectacle and extremes as McQueen, but with a more classical, architectural mien and a more subtle sense of ostentation. One of James’s most stunning ball gowns is an ivory silk satin number with four voluptuous, bustle-like forms protruding at the front, back and sides. It has been described as resembling a half-open parachute and is also a kind of walking soft sculpture." 

The New York Times produced a behind the scene's slide show that can be viewed on their website

The New York Times produced a behind the scene's slide show that can be viewed on their website

Digging a bit further, we learn that James was the first designer to be collected by an American art museum-- the Brooklyn Museum-- which leant the exhibition forty garments for the show. As many commentators have noted this week, James' interest in space and architectural forms helped influence the silhouette and shapes we think of in fashion today as especially modern. The comparison of his designs to the modern art of New York in the 1950's and 60's (in particular the work of abstract expressionists) is also especially compelling here. Smith refers to James' designs as "a sartorial sublime" in this vein, and there is certainly a sense in all of the discussion that a well-deserved place in fashion history is being made for James that links his aesthetic to an especially American modern art sensibility.

Charles James photographed by Cecil Beaton in Interview Magazine (1972)

Charles James photographed by Cecil Beaton in Interview Magazine (1972)

In 1972 when James was featured in Warhol's Interview Magazine, he was characterized even back then as a reclusive designer, known for an intense dedication to his craft and the skill set required to execute his highly structured and painstakingly elaborate designs. This at a time when the casualization of fashion was well underway. Living and working in the famed Chelsea Hotel that helped foster the 1960's counterculture, he spoke candidly about the timeless and enduring quality of his designs in the face of trends, fashion transitions, and outright plagiarism: "I don't think that my work has ever been out of date, in that it was only ahead of its time, therefore it was only a matter of waiting until it became a New Look; and right now I feel that what I'm working on can replace the tacky, fag-hag-drag that which has been passed off as fashion by those who never learned the rudiments of cutting and fitting; usually working from sketches and plagiarizing the process designs produced by the couture markets of the world." 

To be sure, there will be those who argue that the Charles James exhibition is too restrained, conservative, and even elitist as a follow-up to the McQueen and Punk shows of the past several years. I am still undecided on this count, but I do think that the title "Beyond Fashion" suggests that the Met Costume Institute is continuing to push forward the argument started with these earlier shows about the relevance and place of fashion as a worthy form of art. That they chose to celebrate a formalist and less overtly avant-garde or "sexy" artist is a tactic not dissimilar to the one used by modern art museums when they seek to tell the complete history of art through retrospectives of lesser known (at least to the public) artists. It is the sketches, patterns, material, and work that become the focus in the Charles James exhibition, and these are essential components to the workings of fashion design and production that are often missed by today's fashion consumers.

Tags: fashion, exhibitions
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© Dorothy Barenscott, 2010-2025