Dress Impression with Wrinkled Cowl
Dress Impression with Wrinkled Cowl
Artist
Karen LaMonte
(born 1967)
Date2007
MediumGlass
Dimensions56 x 21 x 17 in. (142.2 x 53.3 x 43.2 cm)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2009.9
Accession number
2009.9
On View
On viewLabel TextDescribing her interest in exploring the sculptural possibilities of women’s dress, LaMonte has said, “Clothing both protects and projects. It is armor and costume, plumage and camouflage.” The dialogues that animate her glass dress series resonate with the art of classical antiquity. The stance and shape of Dress Impression with Wrinkled Cowl, for example, suggest the swept-back forms of the Winged Victory of Samothrace (Louvre Museum, Paris), one of the key monuments of Greek art and Western civilization. Yet the sculpture also addresses contemporary aesthetic and feminist concerns, including the complex relationship between “fine art” and craft and shifting perspectives on beauty.
In scale and technological complexity, LaMonte’s life-size cast glass sculptures are remarkable. The artist’s dedication to realizing her dramatic creative vision prompted her 1988 move to the Czech Republic, an international center for studio glass production.
