Still, models’ images “tell the story of entire generations of women,” or one aspect of it, anyway, claimed Yohannan, who shared curatorial duties with Harold Koda, the curator in charge of the Costume Institute. He cited the example of the 1920s model Marian Morehouse, whose lean physique and sleek modernist beauty marked a dramatic shift away from the simpering and corseted beauties of the Belle Epoque to a newly liberated and unfettered type.
“In a nutshell, the show is about expanding the way we see a fashion photograph to include the model,” Yohannan said.
Whether or not The Model as Muse sustains this notion, it does provide a guilt-free opportunity to revisit fashion’s back pages (literally; many of the images in the show exist only as tear sheets from magazines). The crowds likely to throng this show may include some of the kooks who carve out spooky cultist Web-caves devoted to favorites (one such site features 15,000 images), but also anyone looking to become reacquainted with a face from the past.
And what faces they had, and what surprising kinds of beauty. True, there are the symmetrically formed goddesses like Suzy Parker or Jean Shrimpton or Rene Russo. But there are also plenty of oddballs like Twiggy, whose gangly limbs and freckled androgyny seem as startling now as when Life magazine gushingly nominated her the “Face of 1967.” There is Vera von Lehndorff, or Veruschka, the double-jointed German aristocrat with slightly rubbery features, an Amazonian physique and a quirky intelligence that made her an ideal photographer’s foil.
There is Penelope Tree, the society girl with the high forehead of a Memling Madonna and eyes so wide-set she looks like a Martian bug. There is Peggy Moffitt, the model whose impassive face and stylized posture added a compelling Kabuki element to her collaborations with provocateur designers like Rudi Gernreich (she modeled his famous Topless bathing suit in 1964). There is the haughtily aristocratic Donyale Luna — born Peggy Anne Freeman in Detroit — an early African-American model whose phenomenally long limbs and ethereal aura made her an ideal vehicle for the futuristic creations of design innovators like Paco Rabanne.
Are models perhaps the last silent film stars? A preview of The Model as Muse suggests they are. A model’s face on a magazine cover may sell fewer issues than that of the latest hot actress, but they are ultimately a lot more compelling to look at and this is because we hardly ever have to hear about their private lives or be burdened with their thoughts.
It cannot be accidental that Kate Moss, the most persuasive contemporary example of a model as an artistic catalyst, has assiduously guarded what she says throughout her career. Moss is no dummy. She knows that the basic requirement of her particular job is silence. A model is a muse to the precise extent that a model is mute.
Established & Sons Buggs lamp by Sebastian Wrong.
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