Douglas Newby Insights - Page 24

Dallas Inflection

New York projects the idea of black as the tone of fashion and uniform of the city. Blue suits and brown leather shoes for hedge fund managers and lawyers also come to mind. Especially before Memorial Day. But these are just the base notes for the New York kaleidoscope of costumes and color. When in New York I find myself dressing sometimes in a more formal way, sometimes a more casual way, and sometimes in the same way as I do in Dallas. One of the many great things about New York is that every inflection adds to the visual texture and personality of the city. I have found that regardless of what I am wearing, that when I bump into celebrities they are always polite. *Dallas Inflection
#Manhattan #UpperEastSide #City #CityNeighborhood #Fashion #StreetAttire #Dallas #Restaurant #StreetLife #Design #Costume #StreetFashion #Tourist @lagouluenewyork #lagoulue

Erector Set City

Last year MoMA displayed an artist’s vision of a 30th century city. The few skinny tall buildings piercing the cityscape struck me more than the colorful playful shapes. I was struck this year by the NYC tall skinny buildings with cranes on top being erected. They already changed the skyline. Only they appear above the Central Park trees. (Slide images.) From the Met rooftop we can see how these skinny structures relate to the NYC skyline imbedded into our consciousness. The skyscape begins to look like an ornately decorated cake with a few skinny birthday candles placed randomly on top. One more thing comes to mind. In the 1990s when artist Kengelez did the model 30th Century City, our Leadership Dallas class on the first day was divided into small groups for an exercise. We were given a tube of tinkertoys and five minutes to build the tallest structure without it falling down. Our group, a future judge, banker, and architecturally significant agent, took a judicial approach creating a solid aesthetically pleasing structure, not the tallest. I chuckle at groups that took opposite approaches on the spectrum. The developer, investor and entrepreneur without conversation started sticking vertical pieces on top of the other straight up! In 30 seconds it would topple and they would start over. Another group was equally hilarious when the starting whistle blew. An Asst City Mgr, Deputy Supt DISD, and Asst Police Chief opened the instructions and read the caution notes on the tinkertoy tube. More conversation, more reading, and when the final whistle blew, just like the developer group, the tinkertoy pieces were scattered on the table with no structure. Not saying these pencil-thin New York tall skinny structures are going to fall over but may tap into instincts of developers. I am saying bureaucrats are silly cautious. Decades ago Dallas looked like a toy city with buildings as tall as New York and Chicago, but only a small cluster. Soon maybe all cities will have New York’s birthday candle architectural skyscape. *Erector Set City
#CentralPark #NYC #Skyline #TallSkinnyBuildings #MetropolitanRoof #Architect #Architecture #City #ToyCity #ErectorSet #erectorsetcity

Metropolitan Interpretation of Dior

The recent exhibition of Jonas Wood at the Dallas Museum of Arts, Dior at the Dallas Museum of Arts, and now this Dior dress and Salvador Dali painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has me thinking about art, fashion, architecture, and how these aesthetic disciplines have the same notes and relate to each other. (Slide through to see previous posts.) I do not associate artist Salvador Dali with this painting of a woman in a pink taffeta Dior dress, nor do I think of Christian Dior when I see this dress. However, I love how the frills of the dress dissolve into strong architectural lines and simplicity. The vibrant color becomes subtle as it is further subdued by the consistency of a complimentary sash. In Jonas Wood’s painting of his boyhood kitchen, the defining architectural lines emerge from a lush botanical motif of the surfaces. The art patron standing in front of the painting is wearing the same botanical motif; however, the straight lines of her midcalf open jacket define the modernity of this apparel. The Van Gogh landscape painting almost becomes the pattern of the Christian Dior dress next to it just as a natural dense landscape almost becomes a solid with variations of shades. This dress does the same. These pairings of #DressForPainting, design, art, architecture, and fashion all come from the same place. *Metropolitan Interpretation of Dior
#MetropolitanMuseumofArt @metmuseum #Museum #Art #Artist #Design #Designer @Dior #ChristianDior #SalvadorDali #Architecture #Fashion #DallasMuseumOfArt #VanGogh #Landscape #Botanicals #JonasWood @DallasMuseumArt

Bathroom Jewelry

Dallas bathrooms became infamous in the 1980’s and their notoriety continued into the 1990’s. These huge bathrooms were considered contemporary expressions of Texas bigness and over-the-top opulence. It wasn’t until the recent Camp: Notes on Fashion exhibit at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art that I realized Karl Lagerfeld designing for Chloe may have even had a better idea. Rather than just one opportunity to have their opulent Dallas bathroom photographed and published in a showy shelter magazine, one could have worn the Karl Lagerfeld-designed showerhead necklace and matching earrings (scroll to see image) to display a decadent opulence, inspired, I am sure, by the Dallas bathroom. The oversized 80’s and 90’s houses are now often torn down but this 1983-84 Karl Lagerfeld necklace can be prominently worn or displayed forever. It is true that some extraordinary outfits can only be worn once as they are easily remembered. I am sure the strategy for this necklace was to wear it first for a series of small dinners hosted in the owners’ personal homes in different locations and then regional parties, before the necklace and earrings were unveiled on either coast and internationally. Handled right, this jewelry could have become quite practical. Camp is, “Ideas, held in a special playful way.” Susan Sontag, 1964. *Bathroom Jewelry
#NewYork #Texas #Dallas #Fashion #Design @metmuseum #MetropolitanMuseumofArt #MetCamp #KarlLagerfeld @Chloe #Chloe #CampNotesOnFashion #Camp #Showerhead #ShowerHandle #Jewels #Necklace #Earrings

Heidi Tribute

Cultural Slumming! This was the headline for the House of Moschino Jeremy Scott-designed dress exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum’s Camp: Notes on Fashion. How appropriate that Heidi Dillon wore, Drink Moschino Cape from this series, a few years ago to the DMA Art Ball. Heidi, more than anyone else I know in Dallas, has always embraced camp and elevated it to high fashion. Heidi loves fashion and has fun with fashion. The Metropolitan chose this quote by David Halperin for the piece: Camp—demonstrates an exhilaration in identifying with the lowest of the low. Heidi can elevate the lowest cultural ritual to a cultured Chi-Chi expression. Cultural slumming would define one of my favorite hijinks in which Heidi was an enthusiastic participant. Many years ago, the Dillons and I were invited to the very elegant opening of the Chanel store in Highland Park Village. Heidi’s response was to enhance the decadence of this elegant evening with what some would consider a low form of cultural ritual—tailgating. Across from the Chanel store in a Ralph Lauren parking space, the open trunk of the Bentley revealed blocks of the finest foie gras in exquisite serving pieces. This was my first time tailgating for any event, but it was a delightful and joyful experience as we drifted back and forth from the Chanel store to the tailgate. Heidi has the ability to identify with the lowest of the low and enjoy life with the highest of the high. If you slide through images, you can see some other fabulous costumes by Jeremy Scott shown at the Metropolitan Museum. Earlier this year, Heidi Dillon hosted Jeremy Scott at her house for dinner. I am sure he came away from the evening with further inspiration. *Heidi Tribute
@heididillon_hfd #HeidiDillon @metmuseum #MetropolitanMuseumofArt #MetCamp #DallasMuseumOfArts #Fashion #Camp #CampNotesOnFashion #Museum #NewYork #Neighborhood @JeremyScott @ItsJeremyScott #Dallas #Tailgate #CulturalSlumming #Design #Costume #HighFashion #LowCulture #Exhibition #FashionExhibition #UpperEastSide #Manhattan #dallasartball #dallasmuseumofart

Sam Gummelt Re-emerges

Sam Gummelt was a national sensation in the late 1960s. He was a major influence on artists like Dan Rizzie and David Bates in the 1970s. He was great friends with artist David McManaway, Bill Komodore, and many other celebrated artists of that generation. He shared a birthday with artist Barbara Bell and, most of all, I think of Sam Gummelt as a Tremont Artist, not because he lived on Tremont Street in Munger Place, but because of the hours and days he spent on Tremont sharing stories, ideas and inspiration with other artists. Sam Gummelt was also one of the favorite artists of the late architect Frank Welch who vigorously collected him. Sam Gummelt has shown his work over the decades in important galleries and been collected by sophisticated patrons, but like David McManaway his production never equaled his talent or the demand for his paintings. I am very excited that the Barry Whistler Gallery is showing Sam Gummelt’s work in an exhibition that opens Saturday night from 6:00 to 8:00. Slide through to see photographs of Paul Black co-curated by Allison V. Smith and the 1814 Magazine along with the paintings of Sam Gummelt makes this a very exciting opening. *Sam Gummelt Re-emerges
#TremontArtist #SamGummelt @AllisonVSmith #AllisonVSmith @BarryWhistlerGallery #BarryWhistlerGallery #GalleryOpening #Artist #Art #Design #DesignDistrict #Dallas #ArtExhibition #Photographs #Portraits #BlackAndWhitePhotography #PolaroidPhotography #Opening @1814magazine #1814magazine #paulblackcarol @pauljamesblack #DallasNeighborhood #tremontartists

Allison V. Smith Curation

Photography, like other art, is about composition, context, point of view, and how it affects the viewer. Photography has another dimension—capturing a moment in time that can never be replicated. Whether it is a dramatic event that disappears completely, or a nuance of an orchestrated scene, the slightest variation changes the mood and alters the message. Allison V. Smith adds another dimension to this exhibit of Carol photography by Paul Black between 1968 and 1972 which she co-curated with 1814 Magazine. Allison Smith has an instinct to capture the precise emotion of the moment with the click of her camera. It might be a deep emotion surfacing or the changing nuance of a landscape. Capturing or provoking emotion is what Allison V. Smith does. This show exhibits moments that captivated Allison. These black and white photographs of modest and mundane scenes are sexy and compelling. They draw one in, provoke, and make one long for more. You will see what Diane Arbus saw in Paul Black early in his career when she selected his portrait as the best of show—purity and precision, perfect photographs, prescience of his later career processing photography at his Photographique lab in Dallas. His black and white photographs are as pure as the natural and honest approach of the era. His beautiful wife, Carol, and setting conveys a Pennsylvania simplicity that transforms into fashion, domesticity that transforms into glamour. Unadorned and unselfconscious, these photographs explore the intimacy of the home and the evolution and moods of Carol—an artist, a wife, a mother. You will enjoy seeing these photographs at the opening of the exhibition Carol on June 1 at the Barry Whistler Gallery. *Allison V. Smith Curation
@AllisonVSmith #AllisonVSmith @BarryWhistlerGallery #BarryWhistlerGallery #GalleryOpening #Artist #Art #Design #DesignDistrict #Dallas #ArtExhibition #Photographs #Portraits #BlackAndWhitePhotography #PolaroidPhotography #Opening @1814magazine #1814magazine #paulblackcarol @pauljamesblack #DallasNeighborhood @fjac_art1

Texture Creates Shapes

What a treat to have in Dallas two museums on Flora Street, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center, increasingly complimenting and impacting each other. Both grow as a result. What an unexpected surprise to have two exhibitions to explore how textiles create shapes. The Dior exhibition of the DMA shows the architecture and evolution of dresses through the evolution of designers and decades. As you slide through, you will see images of designers’ work seen at the DMA, exploring materials that are tightly tailored or loosely flowing. Artist Sheila Hicks’ work is an exploration of fibers, texture, and shapes. Her inspiration for her art might even come from the feel of texture in her hand. Just as fashion designers do, she explores century-old techniques and natural fibers, and recent synthetic fibers, and technology with much different effects. I recommend if you have not seen either exhibit yet, go to the Sheila Hicks exhibition at the Nasher Museum first. You will leave with a whole new understanding of textiles, textures, drape, form, shape, and the broad and delicate strokes of design and construction. *Texture Creates Shapes
#JoySpotting #SheilaHicks @NasherSculptureCenter @AtelierSheilaHicks @HastingsHicks #NasherSculptureCenter #Artist #Art #Dallas #DallasNeighborhood #Design #ArtsDistrict #DowntownDallas #Museum #MuseumExhibition #SheilaHicks #ArtMuseum #Gallery #Sculpture #Weaving #Weave #Textile #Tactile #SoloExhibition @GalerieFrankElbaz #NasherMuseum #Dior #DiorFromParisToTheWorld #DallasMuseumOfArt @DallasMuseumArt
#Museum #MuseumOpening #MuseumExhibition #Gallery #Art #Artist #Design #Fashion #Designer #OpeningNight #ArtsDistrict #Dallas #Neighborhood