The Art of Being the Artist

Illustration by Millie von Platen/New York Times

Artists and their sometimes eccentric lives have been fair game for ages. You've long been able to buy an Andy Warhol wig at a party store for just a few bucks. Becoming Van Gogh for Halloween only takes a straw hat and a roll of gauze. Things may be getting a bit more serious lately. 

This week the New York Times published a piece on how tokens of the artists are being marketed in museum gift shops along with the usual posters, magnets and coffee mugs picturing their works. For example you can buy a replica of Edward Hopper's fedora at the Guggenheim for a mere $118 and a "Pablo Picasso Breton-style" t-shirt at the Picasso Museum in Paris for $70.

Hopper and hat

Picasso and stripes

This is not breaking news exactly. The Neue Galleria has been selling a $395 replica of Gustav Klimt's painting smock since 2007. I think I'd rather have the cat.

Klimt and cat

The traveling immersive exhibitions  of Van Gogh, Matisse and Frida Kahlo are fairly new. They purport to put you into the picture, so to speak, thus allowing you to imagine how the artist was thinking. A recent Frida Kahlo exhibit contains none of her paintings, just images of her, so you can revel in "the incredible story behind the legendary artist." 

The many personas of the persona

Georgia O'Keefe very deliberately created an image by her choice of no-nonsense apparel. Having just seen an Alberto Giacometti retrospective here in Houston I wonder the significance of his Yale-classics-professor-wardrobe. He even sculpted in a blazer.

Georgia at rest

Alberto at work

So, how responsible is the artist for marrying his work and his art? In many cases, of course, yes. Hopper and Van Gogh? Not so sure. I think about the paint-spattered jeans I almost bought. Did I want to look like an artist without having to paint anything? Then I think about the dress I did buy, and only last week, too. 

I found it a UAL, which stands for United Apparel Liquidators, a small chain selling new clothing that may be samples, over-runs or last-season. This dress was reduced to $14 and made of lovely Indian cotton. If I had a beach house it would be perfect. I do have a backyard, however, and that's where I will wear it, looking ever so much (I hope) like Frida Kahlo.