Corset 1935 - 1942

Curator: What an interesting and meticulous study! This is a drawing of a corset, made with pencil on paper by Rex F. Bush sometime between 1935 and 1942. Editor: It’s austere. Even spectral. The light pencil work against the toned paper gives it a ghostlike presence, like a relic unearthed. Curator: Absolutely. A corset, beyond its function, speaks volumes about the social history of women. The way bodies were, quite literally, shaped and constrained to fit an ideal… Editor: The tiny details…the careful shading, the way the artist has rendered the texture and the boning…it becomes a kind of archeological study of an intimate garment, hinting at complex issues of femininity. There are also strange little blue markings. Curator: Ah, yes, those. From a symbolic perspective, that addition of a seemingly unintentional mark suggests a break, maybe an element that subverts the dominant rigidity it conveys. Maybe Bush is showing a tension? Editor: I think, perhaps, we project this reading onto this study. Isn't it just a simple dress study made during this period by amateur hands for purposes we may never fully know? It seems heavy with cultural significance and artistic aspiration. But still rather...mundane? Curator: Possibly so. Mundane, yes, in that the study itself wasn't destined for exhibition. But is any material rendering of women mundane? I think that everyday item carries a complex narrative. We may also remember corsets as articles of underdress in historical romances! Editor: That’s right, certainly the history of undergarments has been reshaped through filmic representation to something less constrained. Curator: On reflection, the simplicity invites introspection. Rex Bush's drawing really allows us to see and consider the many forces embedded within this...utilitarian, powerful object. Editor: Yes, that simplicity is very striking, which I think might offer many interpretive windows. I hadn't initially thought so, so, thank you for that insight!