Audrey Hepburn: the Fair Lady

Private Collection (photographer unknown)

Audrey Hepburn

circa 1950-55 (?)

    This woman was and always will be a work of art. She resonated grace and spontaneity and truth all in one, making her a reluctant public model of what her era soon saw as a perfect modern lady. But the image of her global perfection was and is intended, even mislabelled, for those who view her through a superficial and theatrical lens - something that reflects only a filtered version of who she really was. 

     On no matter what side of the camera, one could say that Audrey Hepburn had a beauty of both the mind and body that was simple and fresh. She was not one who was seeking fame, but rather one who kept bumping into it by accident. Because of this, however, and because of the formative years she lived through in the Second World War, Ms Hepburn was able to cope and to retain a core sense of realness about her in spite of the growing demands from film and fashion industries, many of which wanted to play with and promote her new face. She was like a petal floating in a great big swaying sea: reasonably scared at times of its huge mass and dangerous currents but on the whole confident in and resilient to whatever it sent her way. Her true image of perfection was not that she was in fact beautiful in character and in form, but that she denied being beautiful at all. What she expressed as openly as her skills in acting was her belief that she was clumsy and inadequate in relation to those great and famous people to whom she was often compared. And yet it was because she did not try to change herself for this, and because she remained resolutely private about her outside life, something that she cherished dearly, that she raised herself above that general selection of famous people. She gave herself, perhaps unknowingly, a truly respectable image of perfection for a human being. She is a work of art in that she had class, charm and a lovely sense of humility, and that her eyes will smile at us even when our backs are temporarily turned.

Marina B: the Accessory

Marina B

Éléphant noir (a bag, meant for evening wear)

circa 1978

(yellow and black gold, diamond and pearl)

    A late modern, even contemporary, objet d’art that is one half of a rare pair made by this designer. Though its sibling models a slightly different armour of jewels and has an ivory rather than black gold body, the two animals nevertheless epitomise an equal sense of playful elegance. This golden elephant, considerably lighter and smaller than its live counterpart, is meant to look pudgy and infant-like. Its great big four-melded-into-one foot intensifies its overall bubble-shaped silhouette, while at the same time making it seem oddly sturdy and solid for such a little balloon. Its shape is meant to not only echo that of the real thing but also that of one’s palm or underarm - a nook that is soft and secure and meant to protect. While it serves the role as a rather overt but small storage barrel, in turn this elephant requires as safe a place as that which it provides so that it may be treated, as surely intended, as a precious and vulnerable real baby animal. 

     Pieces designed by the gifted Marina B, granddaughter of the esteemed Sottiro Bulgari, have an ever-present affinity with her love of nature. Her collections over the years share with each other consistent canons of shape, regardless of size or proportion, and application of detail - both of which illustrate the clear affection Marina B aesthetically imprints into each of her miniature creatures as if they were pets of her own, as well as her loyalty to an uncluttered étiquette of design. Though its original tortoiseshell body has since been removed due to animal rights, this sophisticated elephant stands strongly within Marina B's iconic œuvre, with perhaps its Mabé pearl ‘rattle’ being the best of all.

Victor Vasnetsov

Victor Vasnetsov

In the Costume of a Wandering Minstrel

circa 1882

    Somewhat reminiscent of Johannes Vermeer’s Girl in Red Hat (see post for 25 November 2012), this child also assumes an aged role. In either picture the children are surrounded by an equal play between bright colours and Oriental- or Far Eastern-stylised textiles and prints. Each subject takes centre stage in their frames (a ‘tool’ employed by the artists which directs the viewer’s immediate attention to the children’s postures and strong contours) while each bears a similarly repressed attitude of one restricted by costume. Youth is prominent in both subjects; rather than shielding it, their clothing is only a shell which acts to cup or contain their suggested childlike qualities. 

     But there is a difference between these works of art that rather than dividing the subjects, connects them. Note that while the young minstrel broodingly avoids our eye contact, Vermeer’s anonymous girl firmly holds it. It is he whose character is known (the 'minstrel') who is strangely the one to hide his face, while the girl whose name is not known is the one to stare at us plainly, almost in a way which dares us to label her. The girl is silent and surprisingly sure of herself; she wears a bold red hat which may be read as an annotation to her self-confidence in spite of the cumbersome costume she wears. But Vasnetsov’s boy, introverted and quietly absorbed in his thoughts, is a child who is silent within another, if not deeper, dimension. His costume alludes to the art of telling tales and improvising stories; he, as opposed to Vermeer’s girl, is not as sure of himself or of his future, or of what his mind may dictate next. Even if each child is distant and unrelated to the other, they nevertheless share a similar sense of inner ‘wandering’.

the Wiener Werkstätte: the High-End Trinket

the Wiener Werkstätte (designer(s) unknown)

Box

circa 1910

(cardboard, printed paper and brass handles)

     Here sit four neatly-stacked drawers once used to hold sugared almonds and chocolates (consider Confiserie Altmann & Kühne), needles and buttons or even calling cards. As with the Wiener Werkstätte style, this box is consumed in a continuous, nearly uninterrupted wave of simplified and geometric pattern. Its limited colour suggests the earlier stages of this Austrian arts and crafts movement, while its actual pattern foreshadows the softening of squares and similarly-pointed shapes seen later in the movement’s teenage years.

     This box was and is a statement piece. In its time it was not so much one in the respect of money, but in that of style and quality. Today, however, an artefact as this reaches not only a great sentimental sum (to the attentive and well-trained eye) but an equally-high price. It is possible to find treasures as this still lurking unnoticed in common market places, especially pieces which are as subtle as tattered paper boxes with barely-noticeable printed designs being used to file postcards or stamps or mouldy bracelets. But considering how short-lived the movement was, despite its incredible output of all things from ceramic cups and portraits to silver-laced vases, patterned upholstery and wallpapers, these pieces are nevertheless rare but exceptional finds. As with this layered box, each and every one has an unquestionable sense of character.