Mannequin
Oskar Kokoschka: Self-Portrait with Doll (1921)
From BD’s link, Mannequins in the Marketplace:
“Lester Gaba, the inventor of the modern realistic mannequin, became involved emotionally with one of his mannequins, Cynthia. He took her in taxis to parties, to the opera, and even to the Stork Club.”
This calls to mind Oskar Kokoschka’s obsession with Alma Mahler, the great composer’s widow, former lover of Klimt, and the most desirable woman in Vienna. OK was painting her portrait in 1911 when he suddenly rushed to embrace her, exclaiming, “I must have you!” They had a stormy 3-year affair, then he went off to be wounded in WW I.
from Bonnie Roos – Oskar Kokoschka’s Sex Toy: The Women and the Doll Who Conceived the Artist (2005):
“Upon returning home from World War I, Oskar Kokoschka found that his lover, Alma Mahler, had married another man. In response, he commissioned the creation of a life-size doll to match Mahler’s exact proportions. Kokoschka provoked rumor and scandal as he escorted his doll to the opera, held parties in its honor, and hired a maid to dress and service it. This provocative public performance inspired rampant speculation about what else, exactly, Kokoschka did with the doll.
The doll met its “unnatural” demise when one of Kokoschka’s parties got out of hand. Police questioned Kokoschka in the morning about a murder; a beheaded and bloody body was reportedly seen outside his home. Evidently it was the naked, wine-splattered doll, which had somehow lost its head during the revelries of the previous evening. This was the story that Kokoschka and his critics, both then and now, loved to tell, embellishing racy details, speaking to fetishism, sex dolls, pranks, and occasional misogyny. “
Cultural figure Alma Mahler
Alma Mahler in the works of Kokoschka
February 26, 2010 at 8:44 PM
Let me be the first to link this subject with Texas. All of you (both of you) Texas types with cable TV, take note of this program coming on the Discovery Channel on Sunday: http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/prehistoric/prehistoric.html
February 26, 2010 at 8:48 PM
Did you watch “Taboo” on Discovery Channel about the men who have “Doll Wives”? They never complain, always there for you, dress as sexy as you like and never send you on a guilt trip. You have to do all the cooking but they don’t eat much.
February 26, 2010 at 9:00 PM
Not that this is so wrong on so many levels or that there’s anything wrong with my ——er that Lifestyle. I know what you’re thinking, how do we go out? Sexy sunglasses, wheel chair and a cast on her leg. It’s like going out with a supermodel who fell off her heels from the runway, they act the same and it keeps the bar bill down. We even dance! “Tape these broken wings! And let me fly again! (our favorite song)
March 1, 2010 at 9:19 AM
This is a great piece of Art history – something that the VCU Art History Department neglected to cover. There was one incident though, it involved a mannequin that the assignment said to make in our own image. I tried the best I could but the final product was terrible. Anyway a similar incident of mayhem broke out just prior to the assignment due date. I remember Boatdog proclaiming “I’ve always wanted to do this!” as he punched my doppleganger in the face, knocking it accross the room. During the slidshow, where we were to present our work, my critique was simply “and this one!”
March 1, 2010 at 10:22 AM
Yes, well, let me say this about that. I do not recall any of it. That defense seems to work for republicans, so why not try it here? In this case, though, it happens to be true (that I don’t recall any of it).
But I do recall that Big K had a room – just a large closet, really – adjacent to his bedroom at 316 Laurel. Big K wanted to turn the room into some sort of living sculpture for the Laurel Street bohemian crowd to develop. Not unlike The Daily Muse, as I recall, this was to be an art project for everyone. The only problem was that, as I recall, I may have gotten a bit carried away with enthusiasm for the effort to the point that no one could do anything in there without me coming through and changing it. This too is reminiscent of recent developments here on the muse.
I both regret and revel in all of it, whether I can remember it or not.
As far as mannequins go, there is a story of the La Vogue Company hiring a certain Robert C., and me to drive a step van to Pittsburgh, to collect a load of mannequins from the Macy’s department store there. La Vogue had purchased the mannequins and simply needed two responsible adults to pick them up and drive them back to Richmond.
Unfortunately, the two adults may not have been, at that time, in a particularly responsible mode. I recall a watermelon into which a bottle of vodka was poured. I recall getting to Macy’s and simply standing the mannequins up in the back of the step van (there were maybe two dozen of them or so). I do not recall affixing them into the truck in any manner or providing any sort of padding or anything. I barely recall the drive home and more vodka. ….and I do remember the shock and horror when we got back to La Vogue headquarters and every single mannequin was pretty much destroyed from being banged about during the trip home.
March 1, 2010 at 10:24 AM
I think “Taboo” is on the National Geographic Channel.
BTW, the NatGeo Channel seems to have fallen to the level of sub-literate reality shows. “See the Freaks” or “Dime a look!” That’s one of the reasons my cousin, who was a film/video producer there for 15 years, left them. NGC used to not be run by PT Barnums.
March 1, 2010 at 10:31 AM
Well, I think you’re right about National Geo. It seems to be a trend. I notice that suddenly, on nearly every science show, all the scientists are hot babes, some with big boobies. Science has always had an image problem. It still does.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
March 1, 2010 at 8:30 PM
If fishing show hosts can have big hooters, why not scientists?
March 2, 2010 at 6:28 AM
Mike Row (Dirty Jobs). Bear Gryll, and Sig Hansen (Deadliest Catch) have hooters?
March 2, 2010 at 9:39 AM
…or for that matter, Paul Watson (Whale Wars). I think Corn’s reference was to some of the noodling and canoodling stuff that O3 used to post when he used to post. In the real world, I spend more time with scientists than I do with any of youse, and would say, based on the data I’ve collected, that the bodacious ta ta scientist is a TV thing only.
March 2, 2010 at 11:03 AM
Geologistii aren’t scientists?
March 2, 2010 at 11:21 AM
Well, my dear, you’ve made up a word, so I can only guess at your meaning. But if you mean geologists, I personally have not met any with bodacious ta-tas, except for a few who are males, and I don’t count their boobies in this context.
March 2, 2010 at 11:28 AM
You and I both work with “sinuses”. It would be be my undoing to discuss my colleagues’ anatomies.
March 2, 2010 at 11:38 AM
Yeah you right. Et Toi.