July 20, 2007 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
9
eveningsout
Beauty, after a fashion, both past and present
by Anthony Glassman
"Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye," wrote Bill Shakespeare, although the sentiment predates him by about 1,800 years and continues to this day.
It was his way of saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, a phrase coined by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford in her novel Molly Bawn.
The derivation has little to do with the topics at hand: quality,
taste, style and, yes, beauty, as brought to the eyes of avid bibliophiles by young artist Paul P. in his first monograph, Nonchaloir, and by fashionista Tim Gunn in his book A Guide to Quality, Taste & Style.
Gunn-looking for all the world like a more fey version of Anderson Cooper is a former chair of the fashion design department at the Parsons New School for Design, and is currently chief creative officer for Liz Claiborne. So, he knows a thing or two about fashion.
He came to national renown as the contestants' mentor on the Bravo show Project Runway, and now has a new show on the cable network, Tim Gunn's Guide to Style.
The hardcover Guide (Abrams Image, $17.95), co-written with colleague Kate Moloney, is just what it claims to be: a how-to book of making oneself look fabulous, even on a budget.
Gunn and Moloney share advice from the simple (how to maintain correct posture) to the esoteric (learn the tastes of the buyers for the department stores in your area, so you know which will most likely have the styles you want).
Each of the nine main chapters presents a relatively specific lesson, from deciding what persona one tries to put forward to accessorizing properly as in, stop wearing so darned much jewelry and perfume. Gunn and Moloney make minor claims that the book can be used by both genders, but on the male side, it would be most useful for drag queens and transvestites.
However, the advice is simple enough and clear enough that one could adapt it to shopping for men, as long as one replaces "little black dress" with something equivalent, like "sharp black slacks" or the like.
Thankfully, they also put in a glossary of fashion terms, since batik, blouson and
passmenterie are not words in everyday conversation.
Of course, Gunn's Guide is a how-to book, and as fetching as the little illustrations are, they do not necessary fall under the heading of "beautiful."
The artwork in Nonchaloir, however, is another matter entirely.
The title is a French word meaning "nonchalance," used in the works of Baudelaire and other writers suggesting repose and resignation.
A GVIDE TO
QUALITY, TASTE
&
STYLE
inn
Define your life. Finally! A bike that's as fabulous as you are,
And there is a certain air of that in Paul P's work, especially when one considers the provenance of the young men he sketches and paints.
These are not young men at all, and haven't been for decades, if they are indeed still alive. The artist takes photographs from beefcake magazines of the pre-AIDS era and recreates them using watercolor, graphite or some other artist's medium.
The effect is uncanny. Nonchaloir (Powerhouse, hardcover, $40) is filled with a hunded faces staring back at the viewer, two hundred eyes searching from the past for a clue to their futures.
Some of Paul P's sketches are themselves almost photorealistic, while others are completely impressionistic.
All of them, however, are heartbreakingly beautiful. As artist Collier Schorr writes in her introduction, "Youth is really about the past. Youth is not the pool that young men gaze adoringly into; it is the pool that old men gaze in, in order to measure the distance that their bodies have traveled."
"Make no mistake. These pictures may look nice, but they carry a lot of baggage," she continues. "Each portrait is a history of pursuit, a tangle of relationships. Gangly boys willing to reveal themselves don't appear. And they don't always last for long."
As with the last Powerhouse book reviewed here months ago, Slava Mogutin's Lost Boys, this is an almost unnaturally good art book. The quality and care they put into their work is phenomenal, and one cannot wait for the upcoming Bruceploitation by queer filmmaker Bruce LaBruce.
Until then, however, perhaps a few hundred times thumbing through the pages of Nonchaloir will suffice.
Ride a bike.
✓
i
نه
N
BK
in concert
LORAIN PALACE THEATER FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 14
BUY AT LIVENATION.com
Tickets available at ticketmaster Charge by phone at 216.241.5555 Cleveland or 330.945.9400 Akron. Pick up the Friday! Magazine in The Plain Dealer for entertainment information. All dates, acts and ticket prices are subject to change without notice. All tickets are subject to applicable taxes, and service and handling charges.
REPRIEVE
INTORNOW!
www.
BUD LIGHT
CONCERT SERIES
Produced by:
LIVE NATION
JOIN US FOR A FREE CONCERTI
LOAVES FISMESS ROCK-N-ROLL
Century Cycles
medina 330-722-7119
peninsula 800-201-7433
rocky river 440-356-5705
FEATURING
Anne E. DeChant and the Cross Roads Band
Sunday, July 29th 7:30pm
Avon Lake United Church of Christ
32801 Electric Blvd. (just west of Route 83), Avon Lake, OH 44012
(440) 933-3241 www.thealuce.org
UNITED CHURCH
UNITE
CHRIST
centurycycles.com.