By Rineke de Jong, 6-3-2016
Fashion a portrait, and art
Wedding dress with train of Helena Slicher, 1759. The skirt is 2 metres wide.
I wanted to write a piece about the exhibition Cat Walk, in the Rijksmuseum. I was there last Friday. And I have enjoyed, as a fashion designer, artist and natural lover of beautiful clothes and costume history. Clothes from ca. 1650 – 1960, on a catwalk with mannequins on a treadmill surrounded by the typical chairs, so you’re there as a museum visitor with a real fashion show. Even carpets containing woven “CATWALK” and the beautiful designs of the dresses repeated on the walls. Really beautiful presented. From crinoline to the New Look of Dior. It was mentioned that the clothes were all made for the top layer of our Dutch society. All beautiful, lots of embroidery, lace, expensive fabrics, all handicrafts. Today we call this Haute Couture.
Subsequently I also visited the exhibition of Hendrik Breitner, with his girls in kimono.
Hendrik Breitnet, Girls in white and red kimono, 1894 (model Geesje Kwak)
Diana Vreeland by Rineke de Jong
Vivienne Westwood by Rineke de Jong
For many, many years I work no longer in the fashion industry and I stopped making clothes. My time has long been preoccupied with drawing, painting and everything that goes with it, such as exhibitions. I’m a fan of Vivienne Westwood and have painted a portrait of her, as well as Diana Vreeland, the legend of Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue.
10% and 90%
Now I saw today on Dutch TV Tegenlicht, the documentary “De Man through Europe” episode: Thinking about a new Europe. Lucas de Man is inspired by the actuality of Thomas More’s Utopia (1516). He brings his message with much enthousiasm.
Boem !, I fell out of my fairy world, this is an eye opener! Cat Walk and the leftovers people (that’s how De Man calls the poor people) are connected. I cannot just sing a paean to the beautiful clothes and the artworks I saw in the Rijksmuseum. The clothes not shown in the museum, the common man clothes, have become synonym with this broadcast for me with the leftovers man. It lacks beauty.
Because of this I realized that everything you see in museums is actually mainly made for 10% of the people. The elite so to speak. Personally, I also like palaces, and art made for palaces. Beautiful “civilized” people, good manners. I was only now waking up. The leftovers man I’ve never really seen, even though I know them well and they also are in my immediate surroundings. And if necessary, I am also there for them, but I’ve never seen them as leftovers people nor as 90% of society. Crazy that you can be so blind? On the other hand, I still need my fairytale world in order to survive, because waking up is not always bearable. I need to get it balanced, the bitter, the sour and the sweet.
Now I think again of “The Baron of Munchausen,” a favorite of mine. Still very topical, especially at this time of migration caused by the wars in the Middle East and the search for a better life. That’s for many fleeing from insecurity, but also for very many people the search for a richer material life. Unfortunately this disrupte the whole society. Out of chaos order is born again, that’s a law, but I was so pleased with my world. Where are we going? How will this end? I hold my breath.
Lucas Man.
I do recognize myself in his ideas. With much of what he says I agree. But he does not just say it in his own circle, but says it out loud. That is the difference. This is what his message is about:
The leftovers man is 90% of humanity. By misfortune or because they do not fit well in our society for any reason whatsoever. I do not mean the people who have got into trouble because their eye is bigger than their stomach, which perished in excess. I recommend them to visit the exhibition of Hieronymus Bosch. It is very educational for them. I mean people who just missed the boat in any way.
It is not about left or right
It comes to us, the people. It comes to life, to love, to give something, to receive.
It is also about the quality of education, reliable food, care for the weak, etc. That is civilization. And our civilization for years is systematically demolished. Soon we can only see our civilization in our museums, our architecture. Then we have next to materialic poverty, spiritual poverty.
Politicians, lobbyists, etc., multinationals, do not speak the language of the people, they make a mess of the world.
They represent not the interests of the people.
Politicians, the government, should provide its citizens security and ensure that basic needs are respected, and maintain for us our rights and obligations. They must listen to their citizens so that they know what is happening among people. And anticipate. They do not.
The world is becoming a madhouse, or it already is.
Let’s use our imagination in our lives, making our lives better and allowing us positive changes to become effective. Let’s not sit down in a corner. For we, the ordinary people, are more powerful than we think.
Thinking about a new Europe
