Derrick Adams: Patrick Kelly, The Journey

Derrick Adams

Patrick Kelly, The Journey Exhibition Guide

This publication was organized on the occasion of the exhibition Derrick Adams: Patrick Kelly, The Journey at the Countee Cullen Library from, May 3– October 20, 2017.

The Studio Museum in Harlem 144 West 125th Street New York, New York 10027 studiomuseum.org © 2017 The Studio Museum in Harlem All images are courtesy the artist and The Studio Museum in Harlem unless otherwise noted.

Interview © Derrick Adams and Hallie Ringle All other text is © The Studio Museum in Harlem Derrick Adams: Patrick Kelly, The Journey was organized by Hallie Ringle, Assistant Curator Design by Pentagram Typeset in Boing New Rail Alphabet Copyedited by Samir S. Patel Printed by Highroad Press

The Journey, 2017

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Derrick Adams

Patrick Kelly, The Journey Exhibition Guide

Derrick Adams: Patrick Kelly, The Journey is an inHarlem project presented by The Studio Museum in Harlem in partnership with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the New York Public Libraryʼs Countee Cullen Library. The exhibition is based on artist Derrick Adamsʼs extensive research into the archive of the influential African-American fashion designer Patrick Kelly (1954–1990), housed at the Schomburg Center.

At the center of Patrick Kelly, The Journey is Adamsʼs “Mood Board” series, a new body of work that responds to Kellyʼs legacy as a fashion designer who incorporated social context and humor into his creations.

Adams was primarily inspired by Kellyʼs bold, joyful designs that appeared on Paris runways in the 1980s. The artistʼs abstract collages incorporate Kellyʼs vintage clothing patterns, as well as his iconic fabrics, colors, and shapes: bold and colorful geometric forms, contours of the female body, and buttons and other embellishments.

On view alongside pieces from the Schomburg archive, including runway footage from past fashion shows, Adamsʼs work brings the vibrant spirit of Kellyʼs designs to life, coupled with explorations of self-image and self-fashioning.

Derrick Adams: Patrick Kelly, The Journey is on view from May 3–October 20, 2017.

Contents

Derrick Adams in Conversation with Hallie Ringle P/ 6

Look and Learn P/ 18

Key Terms P/ 22

Live from the Archive P/ 24

inHarlem at NYPL P/ 28

Artist Biography and Checklist P/ 30

Derrick Adams in Conversation with Hallie Ringle

Hallie Ringle, Assistant Curator: Why Patrick Kelly? Is there something that piqued your interest recently, or has he always been important to you?

Derrick Adams: I first saw him in the early ʼ80s while looking through my sisterʼs magazines. There was this young black man in a sea of beautiful models, who he was dressing in his creations. I wasnʼt aware of fashion or the idea of how fashion operated, but I was interested in this image of the designer because there werenʼt other images like that in the magazine. Seeing those really sparked my interest. I didnʼt start to investigate until I started seeing more images of him and the things that he wore and people who he dressed later on.

The archive gave me a sense like I was reading someoneʼs letters. Sometimes archives are donated after the person has passed. There are things he probably would have been more guarded about, but the archive gives you everything. One of the things that I found is that he was a person who had a very strong sense of expressiveness in the way he made things.

It seems like he had an intuitive way of working, where things evolved, instead of a very linear process.

HR: What did you learn about Kelly through the archive?

DA: I gained more of a dimensional perspective of who he was as a person.

I started to really see certain types of HR: So youʼve known about Kellyʼs work humor and vulnerability. Thereʼs a series for a long time. of snapshots in the archive of his birthday party. It was very low-key. People were DA: Iʼve been looking at his designs for there, some people who are noticeable, over ten years, off and on. His relevance some famous models who at the time kept emerging through other people werenʼt as famous. Then other people who knew more about him, as well as the seem like they werenʼt in fashion, just his exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 2004 core group of friends at a house around that Thelma Golden curated. Thatʼs when the table. It definitely shows me that he I realized his level of relevance within the was loved. The images in the magazine of creative community. At first I looked at him smiling, that was really his personality. him as a cutting-edge fashion designer— It happened even in other snapshots that experimental. I didnʼt really know his legacy, people took of him, random snapshots of all the things he did, all the people who he him on vacation. worked with, how he operated, or where he came from. I decided a couple of years ago He seemed like a very positive and that I should do a show based on him, so I optimistic person. He was kind of a people could stop talking to people about him and person. He worked with a lot of younger instead lead them toward who he was, and older people. He had a really interesting by being in conversation with them through range, from working with people like Maya my work and his work.

Angelou and Bette Davis, to someone like a young Grace Jones or Iman. He had a lot of HR: What is the archive like?

Southern qualities that I think added to the over-the-top part of his work, the Southern DA: Three years ago, the Schomburg flamboyancy of some of the objects that Center received an archive of his he made. belongings, which consists of his sketches and correspondence, a series of runway For me, it was about trying to connect concepts, as well as personal ephemera. with him, artist to artist. Iʼm hoping if he I was able to flip through all those things saw the show, he would say, “Oh, this is and look at them last year. a really interesting way to think about my

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work.” I didnʼt make anything until after I went through the archive. I thought it would be impossible for me to even dig into the psychological part of the artist without doing that. I was really approaching the work strictly on a formal level, but I felt like the background story would give me a little more insight into how to execute the formal.

HR: Given that you are creating this work decades after Patrick Kellyʼs runway shows, did you feel that it was necessary to acknowledge the two very different contexts you were working in?

Runway No.3, 2017

DA: I think there are certain elements of things that he made that are very progressive, and that could definitely occupy this space and time. They had a very particular sensibility, which was very dramatic yet very simplistic with the quality of the lines and the silhouettes.

The images that he used for embellishment create a kind of wow factor in his work.

I think that he knew that his sense of detail and the embellishment was his talent, as well as changing the context of things.

I think about that too, how far to push things without losing the integrity. Iʼm always thinking about the idea of duality and the way that people can see two different things, equally, with a certain level of clarity. There can be different conversations happening while looking at the same symbols or arrangement of certain things.

As an artist, I'm really interested in the stories within African-American culture that people don't know. Even in the academic world, thereʼs way more knowledge of oppressive structures than there are of success and achievement within the culture. I started thinking, as an artist, it would be exciting for me to think about conversations that have not been fully realized within black American culture, as American culture, and to show it in a way that is both formal and historical, with the content interwoven with the way the it's made.

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Prints Are In, 2017

I know some black people may not feel comfortable with this work because they think that there are other images to show, of injustices that are happening in the world. I think those images are important, too, and that people should keep making them. I can focus on another side of history that I think is not often highlighted.

HR: Your work is written and spoken about in this deep constructivist sensibility and aesthetic. You are, in many ways, bringing that into this conversation.

DA: In this series, Iʼm really trying to represent a sense of movement of the body or the garment. I didnʼt use the figure directly in the work. I used the contour of the clothing patterns, which are cut up and distributed throughout the grid with a lot of different types of compositional forms that push the shapes in and out of the space.

In looking at his sketches in the archives, I was really interested in the sketches that are more about the drama of the show he was going to produce than the line of clothing he was going to make. The drawings are super-stylized. They have a certain type of attitude, from the way he drew the clothing to how the models stood next to each other with the different patterns in order to activate the designs.

HR: How do you think this series relates to other areas of your practice, like performance?

DA: I think most of my work, even the two-dimensional stuff, is very performative.

Even the flowers I make have an animated or active psychological component, where it seems like something is happening or somehow trying to engage the viewer. The patterns that I use in these works are very particular because I tried to use patterns that were all produced by Patrick Kelly that I collected from different brands—Vogue and Butterick. I wanted to have the patterns convey a sense of their own history and identity. With this particular work, I wanted 9

to do something that is more about a conversation on an established designer versus just using clothing patterns.

I like that the clothing patterns have a very instructional feeling. Instruction played a major part in even thinking about putting the work together. You can still read the way that the seams operate, and whatʼs supposed to go where, with the patterns and the work. You can read his name on some of the clothing patterns and some of the collages, and see components of the patterns. I tried to keep that in mind when I made the work. Not always, but I tried to acknowledge the function of different parts of the pattern when I included them, so it operates in the same way with my work as it did for that original pattern.

HR: Making this body of work was about achieving a balance between your work and Kellyʼs.

DA: I want the work that I make to be in conversation with the objects of fashion being shown in motion. The major part of the body of work definitely reflects me, and at the same time is a significant acknowledgement of Kellyʼs contributions and influence on the series itself—and on me as a person.

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Queen of Everything, 2017

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Semi Formal, 2017

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SundayĘźs Best, 2017

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Mixed Patriotism, 2017

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Runway No. 4, 2017

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Runway No. 1, 2017

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The Journey, 2017

Look and Learn

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Questions to Consider Consider the following questions to think more about what you see, and the connections you might make with the artwork. Feeling inspired? Grab a sketchbook and create a picture of your own journey!

Make a visual connection!

What shapes do you see?

How do you feel when you look at this work of art?

What kind of shapes and patterns are in your clothes?

What do you notice about the materials the artist chose?

Stand back and use your fingers to trace the outlines of the various shapes.

Do you see any recognizable images or objects in the artwork? What are they?

What kind of clothes do you like to wear? What colors do you like to wear?

Draw it!

Imagine you are designing your own line of clothing. Draw the shapes and figures that make up your designs.

What colors and patterns are in your clothes?

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Create the shapes that you see with your body (arms, hands, legs).

Try creating the different shapes you see with a friend.

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Write it!

Fashion designer Patrick Kelly wrote a list of all the things he loved. Write your own love list.

I Love: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and You!

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Key Terms

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Abstract

Mood Board

The nonrealistic portrayal of real-world objects, people and scenes

An arrangement of images, materials and text that is intended to project a particular style or concept

Arrangement

Pattern

The action, process or result of placing specific items

1. The repetition of shape or form, also thought of as the spine that organizes parts of a composition

Composition The placement of elements in an art piece

2. In fashion design, the paper shape or outline from which the parts of a garment are traced onto fabric, before being cut out and assembled

Deconstruction

Rejuvenation

A process of evaluating and making clear the beliefs, judgments, and values that control societal arrangements and ideas

The action or process of making something/ someone look or feel better or younger, or to restore to an original or new state

Formalism

Sensationalism

Interpretation that focuses on the visual components of the artwork (color, texture, line)

Subject matter, language or style designed to produce startling or thrilling impressions

Manipulation The process of transformation, repurposing, or creating new meanings

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Symbol Something that represents a specific item or concept by association or comparison; often a material object used to represent something invisible

Live from the Archive

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On Patrick Kelly “One of the things that was really consistent with [Patrickʼs] work that is also part of my work is using images, texture, and colors that people respond to in a way that is empowering and moving.”

“Looking at his fashion, I always thought about Patrick as being an artist more than just a designer with an audience and a client—a performative sculptor who made textile objects and soft sculptures.”

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Derrick Adams in conversation with Alexsandra Mitchell.

Photo: Bob Gore, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

On Art “Art has to be accessible. It should be a very normative experience to be around art and to see your culture and other cultures depicted in artworks around you.”

On The Archive “With his archive there was such a large range of his drawings, sketches, and his personal materials and correspondence with people. I became more interested in understanding him as a formalist.”

Opposite: Patrick Kelly sketches, n.d., Box 6, Folder 1–3. Patrick Kelly archive, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library.

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All quotes by Derrick Adams, in conversation with Reference Librarian and Archivist Alexsandra Mitchell, during "Live from the Archive: Derrick Adams & the Patrick Kelly Effect" at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on May 10, 2017.

inHarlem at NYPL

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The Studio Museum in Harlem has partnered with several Harlem library branches of the NYPL to bring art into the community.

To find out more, visit studiomuseum.org.

Harlem Library Serving the community since 1826, the Harlem Branch was one of the first to be incorporated into the New York Public Library system. The threestory classical building, designed by noted architectural firm McKim, Mead and White in 1909, houses a Center for Reading and Writing, several designated reading areas, and a soaring 74-seat auditorium for community programming.

Countee Cullen Library George Bruce Library Named for Harlem Renaissance poet and teacher Countee Cullen, the libraryʼs 104 West 136th Street home was once the site of AʼLelia Walkerʼs townhouse, an important gathering place for artists and musicians in the 1920s. The library today holds the James Weldon Johnson Reference Collection for children, books on the African-American experience, a reference collection including college catalogs and financial aid information, and the African-American/Black Culture reference collection.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Schomburg Center, located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, is a research unit of the New York Public Library system.

The Center consists of three connected buildings: the Schomburg Building, Langston Hughes Building and Landmark Building. It is recognized as one of the leading institutions focusing exclusively on African-American, African diaspora and African experiences since 1925. The Center has holdings in books, manuscripts, moving image, photography, sound, art and cultural artifacts.

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Originally founded in 1888, the George Bruce Library has had its Harlem home at 518 West 125th Street since 1915.

The library today features a spacious childrenʼs room and robust cultural programing for all ages.

Studio Salon is the Studio Museumʼs literary series that invites visitors to participate in an ongoing series of talks, book clubs and writing workshops that offer unique opportunities for language lovers from all backgrounds to come together and openly discuss the intersections of literature and contemporary art.

Books, Authors & Kids! is a one-hour program dedicated to storytelling, literacy and visual art, and provides families with an opportunity to engage with authors and illustrators of some of their favorite children's books. After an interactive reading, families create art together in connection with the featured book, which they are also able to borrow from an NYPL branch library to continue reading at home.

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Artist Biography

Checklist All photos by Adam Reich

Derrick Adams received his BFA in Art and Design Education from the Pratt Institute in 1996 and his MFA from Columbia University in 2003. He is a recipient of the 2016 Wein Prize from The Studio Museum in Harlem, 2014 S.J. Weiler Award, and 2009 Louis Comfort Tiffany Award. His recent solo exhibitions include Derrick Adams: Network at the California African American Museum, Los Angeles, and at Stony Island Arts Bank, Chicago. Adamsʼs group exhibitions include Open House: Working In Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum of Art (2004); Greater New York, MoMA PS1 (2005); Radical Presence and The Shadows Took Shape, the Studio Museum (both 2013); The Channel, Brooklyn Academy of Music (2012); and PERFORMA (2005, 2013, 2015). His work is in the permanent collections of the Studio Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and Birmingham Museum of Art.

Runway No. 3, 2017 Mixed media collage on paper 60 × 40 in.

Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York

Mixed Patriotism, 2017 Mixed media collage on paper 30 × 22 1/2 in.

Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York

Runway No. 4, 2017 Mixed media collage on paper 60 × 40 in.

Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York

Sunday’s Best, 2017 Mixed media collage on paper 30 × 22 1/2 in.

Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York

Prints Are In, 2017 Mixed media collage on paper 60 × 40 in.

Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York

Pose #1, 2017 Acrylic paint, clothing patterns, fabric, paper, painted aluminum, oak, plexiglass 72 × 24 × 12 in.

Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York

The Journey, 2017 Mixed media collage on paper 51 × 72 in.

Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York

Work Hard Play Hard, 2017 Mixed media collage on paper 60 × 40 in.

Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York

Semi Formal, 2017 Mixed media collage on paper 60 × 40 in.

Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York

Queen of Everything, 2017 Mixed media collage on paper 30 × 22 1/2 in.

Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York

Runway No. 1, 2017 Mixed media collage on paper 60 × 40 in.

Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York

Patrick’s Signature Look, 2017 Mixed media collage on paper 30 × 22 1/2 in.

Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York

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Pose #2, 2017 Acrylic paint, clothing patterns, fabric, paper, painted aluminum, oak, plexiglass 72 × 24 × 12 in.

Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York Pose #3, 2017 Acrylic paint, clothing patterns, fabric, paper, painted aluminum, oak, plexiglass 72 × 24 × 12 in.

Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York

Opposite: Patrickʼs Signature Look, 2017

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Countee Cullen Library 104 West 136th Street Exhibition Hours Monday–Thursday: 10 am–8 pm Friday: 10 am–5 pm The Studio Museum in Harlem 144 West 125th Street Thursday–Friday: 12 pm–9 pm Saturday: 10 am–6 pm Sunday: 12 pm–6 pm For more information, visit studiomuseum.org @studiomuseum #inHARLEM

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inHarlem programming is made possible thanks to support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation; William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust; Rockefeller Brothers Fund; National Endowment for the Arts, and the Marcus Garvey Park Alliance with funding provided by the Harlem Community Development Corporation. Additional support is provided by The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and the New York City Council.