Pulp Fashion - Paper Couture

An exhibition at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco features five new spectacular works of paper dresses inspired by paintings in the European collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. For more than 15 years, Isabelle de Borchgrave has been recreating historical costumes in exquisite detail, life sized and entirely of paper. Drawing from paintings, textiles, and descriptions, she has made over 60 trompe l'oeil fashion sculptures. Now, they are on view in the US.

Here's an introduction to the exhibit...

"Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave is a painter by training, but textile and costume are her muses. Working in collaboration with leading costume historians and young fashion designers, de Borchgrave crafts a world of splendor from the simplest rag paper. Painting and manipulating the paper, she forms trompe l’oeil masterpieces of elaborate dresses inspired by rich depictions in early European painting or by iconic costumes in museum collections around the world. The Legion of Honor is the first American museum to dedicate an entire exhibition to the work of Isabelle de Borchgrave, although her creations have been widely displayed in Europe."

Above, Marie Claire de Croy and child, 2010 based on the painting below,

Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, 1599–1641), Marie Claire de Croy, Duchess d'Havre and Child, 1634.

Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave will be on exhibit at the Legion of Honor through June 5, 2011.

Top image: a detail of an elaborate paper sculpture, The Medici

Still Life Distilled

In her recent work, photographer Sharon Core has beautifully rendered still life paintings in the style of Raphaelle Peale (1774-1825), one of America's early masters in this genre.

His still life paintings featured perfectly articulated everyday objects: ceramic tableware, glassware, fruit and flowers.

Core has recreated Peale's tableaus with collected antique serving pieces, vegetables and ripened fruits. Her brilliant attention to composition, scale, color and lighting produce a visual feast for modern and traditional tastes alike.



More images from Sharon Core's "Early American" series may be found here and here.

Victorian Photocollages

With advances in photography in the mid nineteenth century, sharing and swapping inexpensive photo booth style portraits became so popular it was called cardomania. The availability of photo portraits inspired amateur watercolorists and artists in the 1860s and 1870s to include cut outs of these images and insert them onto scenes or create scenes around them.

Photocollages, which were predominantly made by English women of leisure, created a new form of creative expression for the Victorians. An selection of these delightful works on paper is currently on exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through May 9.

The image above, reminiscent of an 18th century conversation piece painting, is an untitled page from the Sackville-West album, made by a great aunt of Vita.

Photo: Courtesy of George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film