The Special Relationship of Clothing and Image

Abstract

The text deals with the relationship between image and clothing. At the beginning, I present an outline of the history of the iconography of clothing and various aspects thereof as a contemporary use thereof in selected artistic attitudes from Polish contemporary art. In particular, I focused on the characteristics of the subject as an element of covering, hiding, and mystical treatment of reality, or as an important part of memory. When discussing the iconography of clothing in painting, I focused on examples from contemporary art, with special emphasis on Polish art, expanded to include historical figures, juxtaposing tradition and modernity. I briefly presented how individual artists approached the theme of clothing in painting. I outlined the various possibilities of using costume in painting, on many levels. I drew attention to the works of, among others: Jan Matejko, Zofia Stryjeńska, Tadeusz Kantor, Beata Białecka, Aldona Mickiewicz, Zbigniew Bajek, Jarosław Kawiorski and Mirosław Sikorski. I also touched on body art and tattooing as a specific type of painted clothing that decorates the body. Finally, I presented examples of some aspects of clothing as elements of self-representation and self-creation in the work of the painter Frida Kahlo and the issues of the relationship of the image in the space of clothing, referring to the work of, among others: Chiharu Shiota, Nick Cave and Leung Mee-Ping. A brief outline of this extensive topic was not intended to exhaust the subject, but to popularize and point out the multifaceted, multi-layered and diverse relations and relationships between image and clothing, which are in a state of constant change, following the latest trends in contemporary art. In this relationship, clothing becomes an important element in the creation of artistic personality.