Suellen Rocca, a founding member of the Hairy Who Chicago art collective active in the sixties has died. Her art was feminine and feminist at the same time. She repurposed advertising imagery, female icons and color in a distinctive way. I love the way she and her art appear in this image as one. . When asked about the sources of her imagery, Rocca cited “the cultural icons of beauty and romance expressed by the media that promised happiness to young women of that generation.” I don't know if the show of her work due this summer in Vienna will be held. She deserves attention. Images Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery.
A playful Surrealist Lobster Hat at the Met Costume Institute
This hat, cherry red in the spirit of the season# and part of the Sandy Schreier collection now on view at the Costume Institute at the Met, was made by Benjamin Green-Field and his sister Bessie for their eponymous hat company Bes-Ben in 1941 (one way perhaps of avoiding prewar anti-Semitism was to add the hyphen?) Known as “the mad hatter of Chicago, it cannot escape notice that his lobster—y confection of surreal playfulness was in the spirit of Dali’s Lobster telephone now on view at MoMA.