PHAMEtastic Gala Costume Inspiration!
This year’s gala theme is the Art of Giving, so you have a millennia (give or take) of artistic masterpieces to use as costume inspiration. You could dress like a Degas ballerina, paint your face like a Warhol silkscreen, or make your own sound suit a la multimedia artist Nick Cave. Indulge the abstract with costumes based on Hilma af Klint or Agnes Martin. A whole table could come dressed as Monet’s water lilies, or dive into the world of Kusama and cover everything with dots. Everything!
Need some visual stimulation to start your costume brainstorm? We whipped up a quick video of some of our favorite artists. Scroll down for details (and embedded image descriptions) for each image. And don’t forget to get tickets!
Inspiration Deep Dive
Individual images and descriptions for all of the images in the video.
20th century British painter Francis Bacon’s messy art studio.
Contemporary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who has become well know in recent years for covering rooms in dot patterns and creating infinity rooms.
Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps by contemporary American artist Kehinde Wiley. Wiley is known for large-scale high-realist paintings that reference old master paintings, but replace the painting’s white protagonist(s) with an African American people. This painting references Jacques-Louis David’s painting of Napoleon from 1801. (Scroll down to see a painting by David!)
A popular favorite, The Kiss is by Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt and was completed in 1908.
The Cotton Bowl by contemporary American artist Hank Willis Thomas. Thomas works in a wide variety of mediums to address how social and visual systems uphold racism and oppression. His recent retrospective at Portland Art Museum was fantastic!
Two Fridas by 20th century Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Kahlo specialized in symbol-driven self portraits, many of which she created while bedridden due to a major injury.
Judith Scott, an internationally renowned American fiber sculptor, holding one of her sculptures. Scott, who experienced down syndrome, discovered her passion for fiber art at Oakland, CA’s Creative Growth Art Center, an organization that supports artists with I/DD. She passed away in 2005.
A sculpture by Judith Scott.
Untitled (from the series Four Seasons) by contemporary American artist Wendy Red Star. Red Star’s work explores the intersection of life on the Crow Indian reservation in Montana (where she grew up) with other aspects of American life.
Imágen de Yágul, a photograph by 20th century Cuban American artist Ana Mendieta. Mendieta’s work often focused on physical and spiritual connections to the earth. She died tragically in 1985 at the age of 36.
Claude Cahoun, an early 20th century French gender-queer artist whose self portrait photographs were both personal and political.
A self-portrait by contemporary American artist Chuck Close. Close is known for photo-realistic paintings as well as more abstracted works. In the book Chronicles of Courage: Very Special Artists he shares his experience of being an artist with severe paralysis.
The Bathers by contemporary American artist Amy Sherald. Sherald is known for painting portraits that expand the genre of American history painting to better include African American stories. In 2018, she was commissioned to paint Michelle Obama's portrait for the White House.
Contemporary British artist Sue Austin doing a performance underwater in a wheelchair modified for scuba diving.
20th century American artist Andy Warhol: the man who fathered Pop Art and brought the Campbell’s soup can into the popular lexicon.
Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, a photograph of Ai Weiwei (the artist) dropping a 2000 year old (and very valuable) Chinese vase. Weiwei, a contemporary Chinese artist and activist, is well known for artwork that is highly critical of the Chinese government.
Femmes Noires by contemporary American artist Mickalene Thomas. The women in this scene reference the figures in Edouard Manet’s 19th century painting Luncheon on the Grass, however in this painting, as in many others by Thomas, the figures have been replaced with glamorous, self-possessed African American women who hold the viewer’s gaze. Though hard to see in this image, this piece and many others by Thomas include copious amounts of carefully placed rhinestones.
Oh Jeff by 20th century American artist Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein was one of the leading figures in the Pop Art movement, and his work often referenced comic strips and advertising.
Les Desmoiselles d’Avignon by 20th century Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. This piece is from what is known as his African-influenced period and the sharp angles and shattered perspective of the painting make it a precursor to his later Cubist artworks.
Les Desmoiselles d’Alabama: Vestidas by contemporary American artist Robert Colescott. Colescott is known for referencing historical paintings from the Western European cannon and repopulating them with imagery and characters from African American culture. In this painting, he references Picasso's Les Desmoiselles d’Avignon, replacing PIcasso’s figures with clothed figures of various races. Compared to Picasso’s sexually available nude women, Colescott’s women appear self-possessed and less available to the viewer. And lucky us, Portland Art Museum is presenting an exhibition of Colescott’s work beginning mid-February!
Nymphéas en Fleur by 19th century French artist Claude Monet. One of the most well known Impressionist painters, Monet is most well known for luscious paintings of water lilies, haystacks, and cathedrals.
Two Dancers on a Stage by 19th century French artist Edgar Degas. Degas was well known for painting ballerinas, and his figures are characterized by soft, feathery brushstrokes and lighting that comes from below.
20th century Spanish artist Salvador Dali, king of melting clocks, surreal landscapes, and co-writer of the disturbing yet memorable 17-minute surrealist film Un Chien Andalou.
Contemporary Japanese artist Saya Woolfalk standing amid her sculptures and light projections. Based in New York City, Woolfalk makes multimedia artwork that uses fictional storytelling to consider utopic possibilities.
Oath of the Horatii by 18th century European painter Jacques-Louis David. David was a Neoclassical artist whose paintings often depicted scenes from history.
Contemporary performance artist Marina Abromovic. You may remember her performance at New York’s MOMA in 2010 when she invited guests to sit at a table with her and meet her gaze for as long as they wished.
Now that you’re feeling inspired to create an awesome costume for PHAMEtastic, don’t forget to get your tickets. And if you’re feeling competitive, sign up for our table contest!