'Rachel and Rebecca', 2008
oil on canvas, 200x200
'Fragonnard', 2007
oil on canvas, 122x122
The fashion models posing in front of historic paintings in Dickson Schneider's series of oil on canvases seem intended to express paradoxical relationships between art and fashion. Are they supposed to juxtapose the lasting significance of great art with the timeless distractions of chic, pretty young women?
As the girls in the Cal State University East Bay painting teacher's series preen and pout in their party dresses, they are unaware of the masterpieces they pose before. And their self-obsessed ignorance
undermines their glamour, just as the fifties supermodel Dovima's sculptural chic was demolished when her character hideously mispronounced the name of the sculptor Fred Astaire directed her to contemplate for a fashion shoot in the 1957 film Funny Face. Yet while Dovima's willingness to mock herself gave her chilly beauty a dose of charm and humanity, the women in Schneider's paintings seem to be objects, of her joke, not participants.
For Schneider, the models function as representatives of overall cultural vapidity. Yet in today's contemporary market context, the relationship between the models and the masterpieces takes on another set of meanings. Schneider's ill-advised and distracting decision to name the series "Heroin," may be an attempt to criticize the addictive aspects of mass consumerism. But more interesting potential connotations can be culled from her work.
Many high-fashion consumers were recently buying art as a visual accessory for their egos. And some of the works of art Schneider includes in her paintings are recognizable sore points for those who
were skeptics about the calculus used to measure quality and value that emerged at sales by recent art stars. Is Schneider making the point that the Currins and Hirsts aren't really worthy of attention? Yet also included in the model's disregard are historically fashionable artists such as Fragonard, as well as works with incongruously heavy subject matter such as St. Sebastian and Chuck Close. From her selection of significant works, as well as the fashions in which she dresses her models, it becomes difficult to discover where disdain for passing trends and homage to enduring taste intersect or diverge.
What resonates strongly from the paintings that Schneider has genuine skill and a compelling style. Her figures are slinky and have developed personalities, and they relate harmoniously to Schneider's reproductions of the great paintings. Whether or not Schneider wishes it to be true, the paintings exist in these girls' worlds and the natural relationship between them is more captivating than the contrasts.
In recent years, relationship between artists and fashion has also become too complex and thought-provoking to be expressed through simple criticism of the motives for those who buy both of them. As artists and designers increasingly collaborate and find mutual inspiration in one another other's practices, the significance of fashion as another symbolic forum for meaning gains intellectual support.
The garments worn by Schneider's girls are not particularly innovative. Yet because a few are plausibly in the style of known designers the series gains a larger legitimacy. Without the silliness of the series'
shock-tactic title, Schneider's cynically made superficial beauties carry the punch of some of the best work by Chinese artists such as Feng Zhengjie, who are also raising provocative questions about their culture's attributions of worth and value.
To see more of his work registered on Saatchi Online click here.
Ana Finel Honigman
ANA FINEL HONIGMAN is a Berlin-based critic and curator. She writes on contemporary art and fashion for publications including Artforum.com, Sleek, V, TANK, Art in America, Artnet.com, Art Journal, Whitewall, The National, Dazed & Confused and British Vogue. As a Senior Correspondent for the Saatchi Gallery's online magazine, Ana contributes exhibition reviews from Berlin, New York and elsewhere, as well as an interview series. To contact her, email anahonigman@hotmail.com
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