"Is Fashion Art?"

...is the title of the lecture on 15 June 2012 at the MUMOK (Museum Moderner Kunst) in Vienna where costume historian and fashion scientist Dr. Valerie Steele questions if - for example, the exhibition of a fashion piece transforms it into an artwork.

The lecture is part of the exhibition 'Reflecting Fashion - Art and Fashion since Modernism' which runs from 15 June to 23 September 2012 at the modern art museum MUMOK at the MuseumsQuartier in Vienna.

"Fashion has always played an important role in the semantics of modernism, with numerous traditions following Baudelaire in defining “modernité” through a concept of fashion - of what is “à la mode”." refers mumok.at to French writer Charles Baudelaire's view on the importance of 'fashion' in modern times and its impact (such as mediated 'fashion' content in magazines) on society's way of living.

More than 300 art works by textile designers like Sonia Delaunay, collaborative results between painters and fashion designers such as Gustav Klimt and Emilie Flöge, Salvador Dalí and Elsa Schiaparelli, multimedia products with focus on the representation of women in media and through fashion from artists like Maria Hahnenkamp or Cindy Sherman will introduce into the differences, similarities and the fructifying relationship between art and fashion.

fig.: 'Wedding Dress' by Christo, 1967. Christo and Jeanne-Claude, New York; 137 x 432 x 145 cm. Courtesy Sammlung Josy Kraft, Basel. (C) Christo. The oversized 'Wedding Dress' premiered at an exhibition in Philadelphia where a woman carried the heavy-weight package through the room. Christo's work is an ironic commentary on fashion.

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