What Artists Wear

by Charlie Porter

Overview

An eye-opening and richly illustrated journey through the clothes worn by artists, and what they reveal to us.

From Yves Klein’s spotless tailoring to the kaleidoscopic costumes of Yayoi Kusama and Cindy Sherman, from Andy Warhol’s denim to Martine Syms’s joy in dressing, the clothes worn by artists are tools of expression, storytelling, resistance, and creativity.

In What Artists Wear, fashion critic and art curator Charlie Porter guides us through the wardrobes of modern artists: in the studio, in performance, at work or at play. For Porter, clothing is a way in: the wild paint-splatters on Jean-Michel Basquiat’s designer clothing, Joseph Beuys’s shamanistic felt hat, or the functional workwear that defined Agnes Martin’s life of spiritua labor. As Porter roams widely from Georgia O’Keeffe’s tailoring to David Hockney’s bold color blocking to Sondra Perry’s intentional casual wear, he weaves his own perceptive analyses with original interviews and contributions from artists and their families and friends.

Part love letter, part guide to chic, with more than 300 images, What Artists Wear offers a new way of understanding art, combined with a dynamic approach to the clothes we all wear. The result is a radical, gleeful inspiration to see each outfit as a canvas on which to convey an identity or challenge the status quo.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324020400
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	05/17/2022
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	488,787
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Charlie Porter is a writer, fashion critic, and art curator. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Financial Times, Guardian, and GQ, among other publications. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

On a Wednesday evening in May … 3

Louise Bourgeois 11

Tailoring 23

Jean-Michel Basquiat 45

Workwear 53

Sarah Lucas 77

Denim 87

Nicole Eisenman 115

I'm a mess … 127

Paint on Clothing 129

Joseph Beuys 159

Clothing in Art 169

Martine Syms 207

Fashion and Art 219

Charlotte Prodger 251

Casual 259

Sources 297

Special Thanks 300

Acknowledgements 301

List of Illustrations & Photo Credits 302

Editorial Reviews

05/02/2022

“Our clothing is an unspoken language that tells stories of our selves,” writes style critic and art curator Porter in this fascinating survey of the fashion habits of artists. Weaving gorgeous photography with archival interviews, Porter unpacks how trailblazing artists, such as Marina Abramović and Louise Bourgeois, wielded their personal styles as tools of subversion and considers how their wardrobes reflected “the conditions in which they made their work.” Women artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe and Frida Kahlo, for instance, bucked against the historically “encoded meaning of male power” with their defiant tailored suits, while Jean-Michel Basquiat’s mismatched pieces, often loose-fitting and covered in paint, spoke his language—“off-kilter, chaos in control”—as they called back to his youth in homeless shelters. Porter also mines the sociopolitical mechanisms of fashion, such as contemporary artist Martine Syms’s procuring of “bootleg products” to explore the cultural appropriation of Asian and Black communities, and David Hockney’s “expression of queerness through clothing.” Inquisitive and insightful, Porter’s skillful dissection of the historical context, social commentary, and personal symbolism behind each artist is a pleasure to get lost in, and he makes a spirited case for the power and potential that can be unlocked through the simple act of dressing. Materialism gets a whole new meaning in this perceptive outing. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"Porter treats his subjects as more than just 'style icons.'…[What Artists Wear is] a testament to their humanity: a response to the canon of deified white men, a reminder that all artists are mere mortals with bodies that need covering just like ours. What adorns the nonmale (Louise Bourgeois, Mary Manning), nonwhite (Tehching Hsieh, Alvaro Barrington) bodies in this book is as much self-expression as resistance."

Lauren Christensen

"A liberation and a joy, beautifully written and brilliantly thought. What Artists Wear is at once a revelatory account of how art is made and an electrifying investigation into the relationship between clothes and autonomy, freedom, and power."

Olivia Laing

"Unique, intelligent, and enlightening, super interesting and so well researched. It is rare indeed to come across a book that not only captures the imagination but informs and amuses at the same time. Each turn of the page is a surprising delight."

Adrian Joffe

"A fascinating exploration of the clothing worn by the rebels, rule breakers and outliers of the artistic world, and what it means to live in it.…Porter’s curiosity for the subject is infectious."

Esquire - Catherine Hayward

"Brilliant, loving, visually incisive."

author of White Girls Hilton Als

"Eclectic [and] invigorating…The chapters of [What Artists Wear] devoted to female artists make for the most fascinating reading, their clothes liberating them by giving them permission to be different."

Observer - Rachel Cooke

"An insightful account of the clothes sported by modern and contemporary artists.…Whether offering visual analysis or social observation, [Porter] writes with clarity and wit."

Frieze - Chloë Ashby

"[A] delightful book that flows like a good conversation.…Porter shows how artists—especially queer artists—subvert class, racial, and gender roles in their matter-of-fact approach to life."

The Millions - Ken Layne