MANNEQUINS IN ARTS

Historically, artists have often used articulated mannequins as an aid in drawing draped figures. The advantage of this is that clothing or drapery arranged on a mannequin may be kept immobile for far longer than would be possible by using a living model.

Metaphysical Paintings 

Giorgio de Chirico (1909-1919)

There is something very special about the artwork of Italian artists Giorgio de Chirico.  His lonely empty streets, screwed up perspectives, biscuits, and mannequins can be unsettling… but they are also very beautiful!

While sitting at the Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, De Chirico was struck by the realization that whole worlds exist just beyond our mundane physical reality, and even inanimate objects communicate with us and have personality. To help portray this idea and create a sense of mystery, De Chirico would take ordinary objects out of their familiar context and place them in impersonal and detached settings. This gave those objects special significance, which helps create a unique and bizarre dreamlike quality.

“There is much more mystery in the shadow of a man walking on a sunny day, than in all religions of the world...To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken, it will enter the realms of childhood visions and dreams.”

- Giorgio De Chirico

Apparition

Carlo Carrà (1919)

The psychological depth of De Chirico’s vision reflects the artist’s reading of Nietzche but is also influenced by Freudian and Jungian analysis. While Jung believed in a collective unconscious, Freud believed that you had to know the patient to interpret his dreams through symbols. If you look at the work of the Italian follower Carolo Carrà, perhaps you’ll start siding with Freud.

Carrà’s Apparitions reproduce De Chirico’s mannequin, fish, grecian woman with tennis racket, and empty building, but with none of the psychological depth of the “original”. What’s symbolic for me might be totally personal – although we will have some shared associations – so if you use my symbols, they won’t make much sense. Max Ernst, on the other hand, seems to have grasped the theory behind metaphysical art, and his works in this exhibit show technical advances as well as interesting explorations in content.

CHARLES RAY: CONSUMERIST CRITIQUE

Charles Ray is a sculptor’s sculptor.  He is known for his strange and enigmatic sculptures that draw the viewer’s perceptual judgments into question in jarring and unexpected ways.

He got the idea to the mannequin works while he was searching for the precise things for his tables at different shopping malls. Besides reflecting on how influenced today's "totally sick" shopping and consumption euphoria is by the 60s drug culture, he also began to study the mannequins of the malls.

BERNARD FAUCON: ETHERIC PHOTOGRAPHY

This french photographer applies lots of love and dreamy beauty into his work.  He usually uses saturated color and natural settings. His greatest inspiration is childhood because he states that his work is to protect our innocence against real and mostly immaginary fears. 

The role of children are played by mannenquins, in which our well studied dummy takes the escence of the untouchable innocence that must remain forever in every person’s life.

COOPÉLIA: MANNEQUIN IN OPERA

With libretto by Charles Nuitter, Coppélia is a comic ballet originally choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon to the music of Léo Delibes.  This opera premiered on 25 May 1870 and it talks about an inventor, Dr. Coppelius, who had made a life-size dancing mannequin who is so real that Franz, a village swain, falls in love with her.

AUTOMATA: ROBOTIC MANNEQUINS

The 18th-century, the French artist and inventor Jacquesde Vaucanson, created the first machines that in the form of humans could perform different tasks.  His androids could serve dinner and clear tables for his visitors.

He made robots that were capable of playing musical instruments as melodiously as human beings did.  His magnificent creations were admired by audiences all over Europe: these moving musician mannequins were praised by kings and applauded by scientists. The figures were made of wood and painted white so that they looked like marble.  They were life-size mannequins supported by a large pedestal.  They played wind instruments and could move their lips and tongue which manipulated the air-flow and created pauses.

SALVADOR DALÍ- 1926