If you thought that black velvet paintings could never stage a comeback-especially after the ’70s heydays of dogs playing pool or the nude Burt Reynolds portrait-you just might be wrong. Hey, disco came back.
Pushing the velvet revival is a new book, “Black Velvet: The Art We Love to Hate,” by Jennifer Heath, an art critic in Boulder, Colo. Heath is curator of the same-name exhibition of velvet art that is touring the country. (It is currently not scheduled for Chicago.)
Heath, who was raised abroad in several Latin countries, was always interested in the art of other cultures, including the black velvet-based variety.
“I found this medium was extremely important to the people we (art critics) never pay attention to,” Heath said, during a telephone interview. “It’s time for critics to realize that art doesn’t have to be European-American to be taken seriously. The `art world’ isn’t all there is when it comes to what people love.”
A similar point was put across in the ’80s when artists such as Julian Schnabel dabbled in the medium, reportedly to express to the art world that there were no longer distinctions between “high” and “low” art. Other contemporary American artists such as Peter Alexander, Eleanor Dickinson and Paul Mavrides also continue to work in black velvet, both seriously, and as gimmick art (which is what Heath considers the works by Schnabel to be).
“As critics have noted the use of iconology in art, black velvet is consistently overlooked, even though it is one of the most beloved and most ubiquitous art forms in the world,” Heath points out.
In her book and exhibition, she included a variety of art to show the whole context of velvet paintings, from “Lion,” a Japanese velvet painting from the 1880s, to recent works by such contemporary artists as Carlos Fresquez, commissioned to do their “normal” art on velvet especially for this show.
“Many of the artists we invited to do velvet paintings became quite frustrated in their attempts,” Heath recalls.
“It is not an easy medium to work with. The fabric just sucks in the paint and you have to find new ways of working with dry brushes. I had artists calling me up screaming and cursing me for asking them to do this, although in the end, they all came out with vibrant pieces.”
Although the history of velvet painting is poorly chronicled and hard to trace, Heath believes it originated in Persia, where the fabric was first produced.
When velvet was introduced to China in the 16th Century, the idea of using it in art quickly caught on and was passed to Japan, where it resulted in the likes of “Lion,” now housed in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
“Lion” was done on cream-colored velvet; even now, velvet artists work on colors besides black, including red (for sunset pictures, typically), purple and blue (for seascapes).
In the mid-19th Century, wealthy English took up velvet painting as a cultured hobby, deeming it “oriental painting.” According to Heath’s research, in the Victorian era, young ladies of class were expected to be accomplished in the art of painting on velvet.
The paintings became certifiable kitsch after the 1930s, when Mexican-based companies-taking a cue from the entrepreneurs of the Phillipines-began mass-producing great quantities of black velvet paintings.
These days, the Mexican firm Juarez Export turns out about 3,000 paintings each week, with a small staff of painters, each of whom paints about 10 paintings a day.
If there is a demand for unicorns, the unicorn expert turns out horned animals one after the other. If the star of the moment is Michael Jackson, Clint Eastwood or E.T., the portrait painter takes up the brush.
According to Juarez Export owner Octavio Fierro, sales were at their peak from 1982 to 1985, but despite more than a 30 percent drop in sales since, business is still profitable. “There is already a velvet painting in every house,” Fierro notes. “But it’s coming back.”
Although there are almost as many black velvet jokes as there are paintings, the buying public never thought of the work as kitsch until the highbrows deemed it as such, Heath says.
“The buyers were outfitting their homes with art,” she notes. “A lot of velvet paintings are appropriated from famous artists. To have a velvet `Last Supper’ or `Mona Lisa’ in your home was grandiose.” Paintings of the Virgin of Guadalupe or of Jesus were often enshrined in homes and used in connection with prayer. “I know a woman who has a velvet Jesus that has worn spots where she kisses it and prays to it,” Heath says.
Like the collectors Heath speaks of, black-velvet vendors also take the art seriously.
“I don’t know much about art and art history but I know what’s good,” says Don Kraemer, 57, who makes his living selling black velvet paintings at his roadside stand at Route 59 and Grasslake Road near Antioch.
“It’s not respected because it’s not on canvas, but they have these artists in museums who mix seven colors together, throw the paint on a canvas, call it abstract and sell it for $50,000. That’s garbage. These (black velvet paintings) look beautiful. They look almost three-dimensional.”
According to Kraemer, the big sellers now are Indian maidens, Indian chiefs, buffaloes, wolves and other Southwestern themes, which people work into their new Southwestern-style homes. His inventory also includes the ever-popular John Wayne, Elvis and Rottweilers.
“Most everyone likes black velvet. I don’t know why,” Kraemer says. “I’ve even had people say they are going to insure theirs.”
One velvet painting certainly worth insuring is the famed giant Elvis owned by Chicago radio personality Buzz Kilman. Local artists David Zwierz and Denis Scott painted the 8-foot-by-8-foot painting of The King’s face in 1990.
It has since been displayed in “Elvis art” exhibitions at many galleries.
“It’s so big it has to be taken seriously,” Kilman notes.
What is it about Elvis and velvet? Even the experts can’t say for sure.
“Velvet is the medium of heroes,” Heath says.
“Every hero that ever was at any time can be found on velvet, from Bruce Lee to Don Johnson to Nelson Mandela. John Lennon on velvet is almost as popular as Elvis. In fact, someday Elvis probably will be replaced by Madonna or Kurt Cobain.”
Well, maybe not, Kilman says, noting that there’s an undeniable connection between velvet and Elvis that other subjects just can’t match:
“I saw a video of Graceland and I noticed that even Elvis himself collected Elvis on velvet.”
