Style Imitating Art | Mask Still Life III (1911) by Emil Nolde

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

It was my turn to choose. With All Saints’ Eve happening last week, I went searching for artwork that had some hint of Halloween without being too Halloweeny. When I stumbled upon this painting, I was immediately drawn to the bold colors and the somewhat grotesqueness of the distorted masks. So I went with it. But it was definitely a challenging piece for a sartorial spin.

The Artwork

Mask Still Life III (1911) by Emil Nolde

About the Artist: Emile Nolde

German-Danish painter and printmaker, Hans Emil Hansen, was born on August 7, 1867, near the village of Nolde in Denmark. His parents were Danish and Frisian peasants and devout Protestants who were raising their four sons on a farm. During his teen years, the young Emil found that, unlike his three brothers, he was not truly cut out for farm work. So at the age of 17, he went to Flensburg, Germany, to study woodcarving and illustration between 1884 and 1891. During his young adult years, Emil worked in furniture factories to make a living and spent his time traveling throughout Berlin, Munich, and Karlsruhe, Germany.

In 1889, he was accepted into the School of Applied Arts in Karlsruhe and, from 1892 to 1898, he was a drawing instructor for the school at the Museum of Industrial and Applied Arts in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Eventually, he left teaching to pursue a career as an independent artist.

Although Emil loved to paint and draw as young child, he did not pursue art as a career until he was 31 years old. His new career was launched from a rejection by the Munich Academy of Fine Arts in 1898. Nolde would spend the next three years taking private painting lessons, visiting Paris, and familiarizing himself with the contemporary impressionist scene.

In 1902, Nolde married Danish actress Ada Vilstrup, moved to Berlin, and changed his surname to that of his birthplace. In the early 1920s, Nolde became a member of the Danish section of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. In accordance with the party’s beliefs, he openly expressed anti-semitic, negative opinions about Jewish artists. Despite Nolde’s support for the Nazi party, Adolf Hitler rejected any form of modernism as “degenerate art” and officially condemned Nolde’s work as such.

Until this point, Nolde’s work was highly esteemed in Germany. A total of 1,052 of his works were removed from museums and he was banned by Hitler from painting, even in private, in 1941. During this ban, Nolde painted anyway, creating hundreds of watercolors which he called the “Unpainted Pictures”.

After World War II ended, Nolde was once again honored and his success as a brilliant colorist was acknowledged. Recently, scholars have taken up a discussion about the relationship between his anti-semitic politics and his art, examining his self professed Nazi beliefs as well as the tendency of postwar art historians to downplay these leanings.

Nolde died at age 88 on April 13, 1956, in Seebüll, Germany. He was a prolific artist leaving behind a vast collection of paintings, prints, and watercolors capturing landscapes, religious images, flowers, stormy seas, and nightlife scenes in Berlin. Emil Nolde’s works are exhibited in major art museums throughout the world, including today’s painting which is housed about 1,200 miles from me in Kansas City, Missouri.

About the Art: Mask Still Life III

Mask Still Life III is an oil painting on canvas from 1911. The painting measures 74 x 78 cm (29.1 x 30.7 in) and is a representation of Expressionism in still life form. It is currently exhibited at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.

The description of the painting offered by Artchive sums it up way better than I ever could.

“The artwork presents a vivid and arresting tableau of masks, each rendered with bold colors and brushwork that typifies Nolde’s expressionist approach. The use of color is particularly striking, with contrasting hues that imbue the piece with a sense of depth and vibrancy. The masks depicted are stylized, each exhibiting distinctive emotional characteristics, from the sinister and sardonic to the grotesque and enigmatic. 

Nolde’s technique involves thickly applied paint and a rich palette, contributing to the intensity and emotional resonance of the work. The masks, likely inspired by non-Western art, which was of immense interest to many avant-garde artists of the time, stand out against a background that although less detailed, still vibrates with color and painterly energy.

With “Mask Still Life III”, Nolde captures the tension between the facades we wear and the primordial emotions they can conceal or express, a theme as relevant to the contemporary viewer as it was in the early 20th century when the artwork was conceived.”

Resources/References

• Wikipedia: Emil Nolde
• Artchive: Mask Still Life III (1911) by Emil Nolde

About My Outfit

I really thoroughly stumped myself with this one. So I did what I do when I am faced with a difficult sartorial challenge. I took an image of the painting into my closet room and waited for the magic to manifest. The wardrobe fairies began swirling through the hangers of clothing and landed directly on my very first Frankendress.

The brightly colored stripes on the skirt captured nearly every bold color apparent in the painting. I think the only color in the artwork that is not in my outfit is green. But my eyes are green, so that counts, right?

After settling on this dress because of its color palette, I started questioning the relevance of the graphic on my dress. How on earth could I connect the phrase “my coffee needs coffee” to this mask still life? Actually, the connection is pretty simple. Those masks look like they would benefit from some coffee-infused coffee. They look angry, mean, and ornery. Which is likely the result of sleep deprivation. So give these guys a pot of java and let them be merry and bright!

I topped off my dress with a black and white skull cardigan to represent the masks themselves. I have had this cute sweater for a few years but I tend to only wear it around Halloween. This is the first time I am sharing photographs of it. Keeping with the Halloween theme, I accessorized with my black floppy witchy hat and my tall vintage style combat boots (my wedding boots). Finally, this dress doesn’t need much jewelry except for my bold colorful tagua nut earrings.

Despite the difficulty of this challenge, I was really pleased with the outcome. What do you think? Did I adequately capture the painting in this outfit?

If you want to play along and be featured with your art inspired outfit in my gallery post on Wednesday, November 6, 2024, be sure to submit your photos to me at shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. In the meantime, be sure to check out Salazar’s interpretation of this painting as well as Marsha’s take on it. 

Happy styling, my friends!

Shelbee

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