Rearranging History around Beauty
“Helena Rubinstein: Beauty is Power,” on view at the Jewish Museum, is an exhibition that features the life, influence, business enterprise, and wide-ranging art collection of the extraordinary, complicated entrepreneur, Helena Rubinstein, who ascended from humble roots to lead a global beauty empire.[1] The exhibition’s title, “Beauty is Power” (derived from the headline of a 1904 advertisement) is a bold declaration of Rubinstein’s distinctive commercial savvy and inherent feminism.[2] “Beauty,” a word that was considered paradoxical in the past, still appear to be conflicted in today’s society, given that “beauty” often seems to dance on the line between good and evil, light and darkness, and high and low—and so does the word “power.” It is therefore interesting to see how this exhibition pairs these two words through visual and interpretive methods, causing “chemical reactions” between the two concepts and generating new ideas as a result.
Contextualizing these terms against the background of Rubenstein’s own times helps to define the links between beauty and power. At the turn of 19th century, beauty was considered an inborn taste and “something to which only the wealthy were entitled.”[3] By contrast, for Rubinstein, beauty was a goal that could be achieved by any woman on her own, through the use of cosmetics. Cosmetics, initially associated with the painted faces of actresses and prostitutes and frowned upon by the middle classes,[4] were redefined by Rubinstein as a tool for reclaiming beauty and rebelling against the prevailing standards. In this sense, “power” can be interpreted as the victory of this rebellion and the establishment of women’s independence. Of course, for Rubinstein, power had more to do with disseminating, influencing, and leading than with being a self-expressive individual, influencing society through intensive self-promotion and self-representation. Densely interspersing images of Rubinstein among the other exhibits, this show perfectly exemplifies her unique perceptions of beauty and power. Heavily re-touched photos from magazines, portraits depicting her in different costumes, and advertisements featuring her charismatic appearance are juxtaposed against her personal belongings (including clothes and jewelry) in galleries that imitate the interiors of her residences and salons in London, Paris, and New York (Figures 1 and 2). For example, the arrangement of portraits on the second gallery wall resonates intimately with a magazine photograph displayed in an adjacent case (Figures 3 and 4). Further on, the embroidered satin gown in Graham Sutherland’s portrait of Rubenstein is displayed next to its real life counterpart; seen together, the object and image form an immersive environment that contextualizes the audience within the historical period when Rubinstein waged her “war” on beauty. Interestingly, the characteristic images of this makeup magnate suggest that her “rejection of the orthodox” has now become a new “convention,” followed by thousands of women obsessed with making themselves look sophisticated and stylish.
Figure 1: Installation view of the exhibition Helena Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power, October 31, 2014 – March 22, 2015. ©The Jewish Museum, NY. Photo: David Heald.
Figure 2: A fashion shoot for Bergdorf Goodman staged in the foyer of Helena Rubinstein's New York home at 625 Park Avenue, (1944). Photograph by John Rawlings. Vogue / Condé Nast Archive.
Figure 3: A 1958 photo of Helena Rubinstein in front of a montage of some of the many portraits she commissioned throughout her life. Photo: Helena Rubinstein Foundation Archives, Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY, Gladys Marcus Library, Special Collections
Figure 4: Installation view of the exhibition Helena Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power, October 31, 2014 – March 22, 2015. The painting the third line from the left is the painting by Graham Sutherland © The Jewish Museum, NY. Photo: David Heald
Nevertheless, the seemingly incessant, prescient stream of self-representation is periodically “interrupted” by collections in which flattering images hang side by side with others less visually pleasant. One is example is the portrait wall (Figure 4) above, on which the figures elegantly depicted in the paintings on the left side appear to be turning away and “snubbing” the rough, wild, and sketchy picture on the right, which Rubinstein never actually saw. Other contradictions occur in portraits by Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. Picasso’s cartoonish pencil and Conte sketch shows a tough, sneaky, elderly businesswoman (Figure 5); while Andy Warhol’s drawing, executed in smooth contours, positions the profile of an elegant young lady against an exotic background in which two Japanese girls look on enviously (Figure 6). The contrasting expressions in these images raise further points for discussion about Rubinstein’s role as a patron of the arts, wielding her taste and power (both heavily featured in this exhibition).
Figure 5: A 1938 photo of Helena Rubinstein, left, and a 1955 Pablo Picasso Conté crayon on paper portrait of her. Photo: The Image Works; 2014 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Figure 6: Andy Warhol Madame Rubinstein in Kyoto, Japan, 1957 Ink with white highlights on paper, 16 3/4 x 22 in. (42.5 x 55.9 cm) Williams College Museum of Art, Gift of Richard F. Holmes, Class of 1946 © 2014 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
In this show, special attention is paid to Rubenstein’s identity as both a female entrepreneur and an ardent art collector. In exploring the former, emphasis is placed on how Rubenstein introduced art into her business, as demonstrated by a half-page advertisement that originally appeared in Vogue, presenting Helleu’s 1908 etching of Rubinstein looking sophisticated in aigrette-adorned headwear.[5] Her eclectic sense of aesthetics is demonstrated through her extensive art collection that ranged from Elie Nadelman’s elegant, modern sculptures and Matisse’s paintings to exotic African and Oceanic handcrafts, and exquisite miniature period rooms. A critical review in the New York Times pointed out, “As a collector of Western art, Rubinstein had a few weaknesses. One critic sniped that she “had unimportant paintings by every important painter of the 19th and 20th centuries,” an observation that is not entirely off the mark.”[6] However, I think it is better to see these works as a whole rather than to judge them separately, for they are an integral part of the narrative of Rubinstein’s life. By rotating masterpieces around the profile of their patron, this exhibition presents a novel perspective, through which visitors can look at art beyond the familiar confines of their knowledge of art history.
Vibrating between art and commerce, this show, “Beauty is Power,” poses some open-ended questions, including the following: what is the relationship between beauty and power nowadays? How do personal “back stories” shape the art world? Can art history be viewed from a different perspective?
[1] Mason Klein, “Helena Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power,” http://thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/helena-rubinstein-beauty-is-power#about, accessed December 7, 2014.
[2] Mason Klein, “Helena Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power.”
[3] Mason Klein, “Helena Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power.”
[4] Mason Klein, “Helena Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power.”
[5] Karen Rosenberg, “An Art Trove Built on Mascara and Cold Cream: Celebrating Helena Rubinstein at the Jewish Museum,” New York Times, October 30, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/arts/design/celebrating-helena-rubinstein-at-the-jewish-museum.html?_r=0, accessed December 7, 2014.
[6] Karen Rosenberg, “An Art Trove Built on Mascara and Cold Cream: Celebrating Helena Rubinstein at the Jewish Museum,” New York Times, October 30, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/arts/design/celebrating-helena-rubinstein-at-the-jewish-museum.html?_r=0, accessed December 7, 2014.