Art in the Clothes They Wear: Reviewing 'What Artists Wear' by Charlie Porter

By Nicole Entin

While art historians often analyse the significance of clothing in different works, whether as a marker of status, an indicator of purposeful costuming, or an embodiment of national identity, it is arguably far more rare for an art historian to analyse the clothing worn by the artist who created that work. Understanding What Artists Wear is the key question of Charlie Porter’s 2021 book of the same title, which seeks to reflect on what ‘an artist’s wardrobe [says] about their bravery and defiance, or indeed their compliance with the culture and ideology of their society’ (p.4). A London-based fashion critic and art curator, contributor to a variety of prominent publications, and a juror for the 2019 Turner Prize, Porter takes an interdisciplinary approach to his book by contextualising artworks through the clothes of their artists, while simultaneously understanding them ‘as human beings’ (p.10) by painting intimate portraits of the personalities through the garments which they wore. 

Gavin Ashworth, The cover of What Artists Wear, featuring a photograph of Georgia O’Keeffe’s Emsley Suit, 2016

Focusing on the modern and contemporary periods, Porter alternates between individual biographies of artists from Louise Bourgeois to Martine Syms, and overarching topics such as ‘Tailoring’, ‘Paint on Clothing’, and ‘Casual’. He frames these chapters with his own experiences of interacting with fashion in the art world, anecdotes that merge the sartorial and conspiratorial voice of a fashion writer with valuable insights into social, feminist, and queer art histories channelled through a unique look behind the scenes of the most celebrated gatherings in the art world. What Artists Wear opens with an account of a cocktail party hosted by the Tate for the opening week of the Venice Biennale, an invite-only affair with a ‘lounge suit’ dress code. Porter describes the approaches of five of the most prominent guests, all female and several queer artists, to this dress code: a long-sleeved white T-shirt worn by 2018 Turner Prize winner Charlotte Prodger; a tiered, sequined dress worn with an overcoat and sneakers by Anthea Hamilton, who described the dress as ‘Edwardian’; a grey T-shirt and trackpants worn by Helen Cammock, a nominee for the 2019 Turner Prize judged by Porter. The book closes with an account of the 2019 Turner Prize ceremony, the first time in the prize’s history when all four nominees were jointly awarded the prize by their own request. Porter describes the momentous occasion as being ‘like a beginning. Here were artists defining their own space: not a prize, not an institution.’ (p.351) His concluding words about the four Turner Prize winners echo the key concepts Porter explores in his book as a whole, asking how artists use clothing and their own unique style to ‘define their own space’.

Stuart Wilson (Getty Images), Turner Prize Award Ceremony (Left to right: Tai Shani, Oscar Murillo, Helen Cammock, Lawrence Abu Hamdan), 2019

Some of Porter’s best insights in What Artists Wear derive from close examinations of the significance of certain pieces of clothing to the artists who wore them. In doing so, he delivers a powerful commentary on historically marginalised strands of art scholarship, whether on movements or artists who deserve more attention. He discusses the white Helmut Lang coat worn by Louise Bourgeois, and her long-standing friendship with the designer, as well as the iconic red dress, cardigan, and wig worn by Lynn Hershman Leeson for her five year-long performance art piece Roberta Breitmore. In his chapter on ‘Paint on Clothing’, Porter recalls finding a photograph of a pair of paint-splattered shoes on the website of the Pollock Krasner House and Study Centre, and emailing to ask if he could use this image of what he thought were Pollock’s shoes. He received a response: ‘They weren’t his. They were his wife’s – Lee Krasner’s.’ (p.169) The shoes that did belong to Pollock were pristine, brown loafers without a speck of paint on them. Through this brief example, Porter articulately demonstrates the considerable power of artist’s clothing in the popular imagination – Pollock, the beloved of ‘a New York art industry enamoured with the male-genius artist narrative’ (p.170) – in contrast to a reality that unveils the talents and visionaries overlooked by the mainstream, and only beginning to be recognised in scholarship.

Charlie Porter, Excerpt from What Artists Wear, images of Lee Kraser and Jackson Pollock’s shoes, 2021

Enabled by his connections in the fashion and art worlds, a significant portion of What Artists Wear is dedicated to original interviews conducted by Porter with artists, designers, and their acquaintances. This entirely unique material takes the form of transcripts from in-person interviews, phone calls, or video calls, as well as copy-pasted email responses from the artists. The importance of maintaining and conveying the artist’s language and way of expressing themselves is made clear by Porter on numerous occasions. Preceding a copied section of an email exchange with the artist and filmmaker Ryan Trecartin, Porter notes that ‘I’ll keep his grammar as he typed it.’ (p.323) He also provides the response, in full, of performance art duo Gilbert & George to an email he sent about tailors in the City of London, writing that ‘This is their reply, just as they wrote it.’ (p.50) The repeated emphasis on conveying an artist’s unique identity not only through their clothes, but through the distinct way in which they speak, is a key goal of Porter’s book.

In this form of journalism, Porter is also unafraid to find and repeat opinions of interviewees that frequently differ from his own. One of the most striking examples is in Porter’s interview with Caroline Tisdall, an art critic and collaborator of the German performance artist and sculptor Joseph Beuys. The chapter dedicated to Beuys is largely composed of Porter’s interview with Tisdall, discussing the relationship between clothes and shamanism, Beuys’s warnings against consumer culture, and his protest art, among other subjects. Porter leaves the final word to Tisdall as he transcribes her observation about the work that his book is engaging in: ‘Your thing about clothing is interesting because it makes him [Beuys] different from you and me. At a very basic level. Or a very profound level.’ (p.192) Although Porter has emphasised that the goal of his book is to humanise artists and ‘look again at the meaning we attach to our own clothes, and free ourselves from ways of being that seek to keep us in our place’ (p.10), Tisdall considers Porter’s ideas as making artists like Beuys distinct from common individuals. There is no necessarily correct answer between the two, no agenda being pushed in the narrative.

Caroline Tisdall, Photograph of Joseph Beuys, 1974

Charlie Porter’s What Artists Wear is a thought-provoking and thoroughly researched publication in the Penguin Art & Fashion series that provides an original perspective into the lives of artists and their ideologies as conveyed through the clothing they wear. It can be appreciated in scholarly and non-academic settings alike, with its accessible language and writing style echoing the overarching goals of the book. Clothing has always been seen as a vehicle of self-expression, but Porter convincingly and insightfully creates ways to understand art and artists through the pieces which they wear.

Notes:

All citations are from What Artists Wear, and indicated in-text by page number.

Porter, Charlie. What Artists Wear. (London: Penguin Art & Fashion, 2021)