Fashion in the Art World

After my individual critique with Chinn I threw myself into the Theory, History, Research paper/statement. A lot of our discussion was centered around what I am thinking about while creating these paintings: my influences, and my voice. A lot of my work focuses on the connection and interplay between the three worlds of fashion, marketing, and fine art, and through that there are a lot of different ideas and thoughts that emerge. Primarily, through our conversation, I found that the themes of beauty, objectification, design, and history related to how we define art. What makes art art? While past statements and ideas have focused on the ideals and projection of feminine beauty, or critiqued the nature of objectification and appropriation in advertising, they are really just pieces of the larger puzzle.

Working on the THR statement I spent a lot of time researching debates and discussions on whether fashion is considered a fine art or a something else on its own. If it is art, WHY is it art? And if it cannot be considered art, WHY is that? There were a lot of interesting articles published, and even people within both the art and fashion world had very polarized and controversial opinions. Karl Lagerfeld said "Art is art. Fashion is fashion. Andy Warhol proved they can exist together", but doesn't call himself an artist. Other designers insist they are artists. Fashion has been displayed in prominent museums such as the MET, next to Monet paintings and Ancient Greek marble sculptures. Does it deserve a place there?

Within my series of paintings, through the process of sourcing, reinterpreting, and painting the images to interact with each other--pattern and body, model and design--puts both the fashion and the body in the realm of being fine art.

Going forward I'm going to continue to research this ongoing debate, and try to find exactly where I stand within it and how my artwork can contribute some new to the discussion. I believe fashion and the form does have a place within the fine art world, it's just about creating an argument as to why, and conveying that visually.