John Sargent and Fashion in Tate Britain. How to enjoy his paintings
Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, 9 March 2024
The Fabric of Democracy”, which was curated by Amber Butchart. We decided also to visit several exhibitions in different venues in London, to see various specific items and get new ideas and inspiration.
Willem and I are in London at the moment to pick up TRC items lent to the Museum of Fashion from their exhibition called “Over the years we have seen good exhibitions, bad exhibitions, and some that reminded us of the ‘Emperor’s new clothes’ (i.e. there was nothing there, literally). So on Friday afternoon we went with great curiosity to Tate Britain to see their new exhibition Sargent and Fashion (with paintings by the American artist John Singer Sargent, 1856-1925).
The exhibition was slated in a review in the Guardian (20 February) by Jonathan Jones as being “A horrible exhibition” (in his first sentence). “Sargent’s gloriously rich and subtle paintings can’t be reduced to dreary facts about hats, dresses and opera gowns. Sadly, that’s just what’s happened” Jones seems to have disliked the paintings being displayed together with the garments actually worn by the people being portrayed. It appears to have distracted him from Art.