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ProQuest Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Mi 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. NOTE TO USERS This reproduction is the best copy available. UMI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BATIK IN AMERICA: JAVANESE TO JAVANESQUE, 1893 TO 1937 DISSERTATION Presented Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Abby G. Lillethun, M.F. A. The Ohio State University 2 0 0 2 Dissertation Committee: Professor Patricia Cunningham Approved by Professor Gwendolyn O’Neal ^ A Professor Myroslava Mudrak Advisor / Curator Gayle Strege College of Human Ecology Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3072915 Copyright 2002 by Lillethun, Abby Gayl All rights reserved. ____ __<g) UMI UMI Microform 3072915 Copyright 2003 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright by A bby G. L illethun 2 0 0 2 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This research examines the influence of the Javanese art of batik in American textile arts from 1893 to 1937 to recognize its presence, transformation, and meaning. The foundations of batik’s entry, its entry, emergence, and spread are examined through publications, archival materials, and extant objects. Four elements are identified as re-expressions of Javanese batik in American textile arts: painting dye inside a wax outline, en fo r m e printing of designs, the line quality of wax flowing from a ca n tin g , and crackle effects. The Dutch practice of batik was examined demonstrating linkage to the American Arts and Crafts movement. Batik textiles in the Dutch ethnographic collections were readily interpreted in the development of Nieuwe Kunst style. Dutch investigators in the 1890s were C. A. Lion Cachet, and H. Berlage and H. A. Baanders. Later, batik technique also appealed to the American Arts and Crafts movement since batik easily reflected Arts and Crafts tenets. Baanders’ partnership with the Koloniale Museum led to the Haarlem batik technique, described by Theo. Neuhuys, in his introduction of batik technique to America in Keramic Studio in 1907. The role of the national infrastructure of Arts and Crafts and affiliations of people responding to the Arts and Crafts movement, are presented as the earliest mechanisms of the spread of batik and the basis of the breadth of its practice. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Examination of higher education textile programs, influenced hy Arts and Crafts, revealed the critical role of Charles E. Pellew of Teachers College. The artist Marguerite Zorach’s involvement in batik is expanded to examine two commercially produced textile designs. Pieter Mijer is examined through his education, immigration from the Netherlands in 1909, and career in commercial textile products for John W anamaker Store, C. A. Frutchey, and in theatre design. Described in textile promotions as batik effects, or Javanesque effects, the distinctive canting line of flowing liquid and crackle became new elements in American design vocabulary. Crackle, the signature element in American imitation batik, provided abstraction and thus related batik to emergent modernist styles in American textiles. The spread of the batik technique in America and the promotion of traditional Javanese batik are recognized as developments of divergent aspects of Orientalism. Appearing to be an elision of Javanese batik’s formal elements, the popular spread of batik technique and interpretation of visual elements was an egalitarian expression that demonstrated appreciation of the Javanese batik art. However, traditional Javanese batik was linked to racist constructions of Javanese females as sources of exotic sensuality, seen in batik’s first appearance in America in 1893 at the Java Village, Midway Plaisance, Chicago W orld’s Columbian Exposition. Eva Gauthier’s national vaudeville tour (1915 to 1916) of her modernist act “Songmotion” was publicized by newspapers linking Gauthier, Javanese women, and traditional batik to Moslem harems, which ensured the perception of exotic sensuality for traditional batik. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Dedicated to the weavers I met as a child in Bangkok a n d to m y p a re n ts, Jim and Maxie Lillethun iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is my hope that anyone who contributed to my research that I have failed to acknowledge below will accept my apology for my failure, and know that I appreciated everyone and everything that pushed my work forward. The historical research process requires awareness and perseverance, but I am now schooled in the importance of the assistance of many, many people. I am indebted to the many librarians and other library staff members who assisted my research. The following libraries and individuals deserve special recognition for their assistance to me: New York Public Libraries, including the Humanities Library, Art Library, Science and Business Library, and the Performing Arts Library, Music, Theatre, and Dance Divisions; the Library of Congress, Reading Room, and Manuscripts Division; the Watson Library and the Costume Institute Library of the M etropolitan Museum of Art; the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) Library and Special Collections; Ms. Greene, University of Rhode Island Interlibrary Loan Department. At the Brooklyn Museum Library Deborah Wythe, Archivist and Manager of Special Library Collections, and the library’s staff were always cheerful in their assistance to my search of the Museum Library’s rich textiles and fashion collection. The extensive resources available to me at the Ohio State University (OSU) Library, and through its library system v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. partners were critical elements in my process. I offer praise to the OSU Interlibrary Loan Department whose work on my behalf was swift and thorough, and to Susan Wyngaard, Fine Arts Library, who was enthusiastic and reached out to other libraries on my behalf. I am grateful for the help of the following collections and individuals that provided me with the crucial connection to textile objects and to archival material in their files: Charles Kleibacker; Laird O’Shea Borrelli, FIT; Angela A. Mattia and Anne Guernsey, Museum of the City of New York (MCNY); Phyllis Magidsen, Curator of the MCNY Costume Collection, kindly accommodated my repeated visits; Patricia Mears, Curator of Costumes and Textiles, Brooklyn Museum of Art; Denny Stone, Curator of the Costume and Textiles Collection, San Diego Historical Society; the Ratti Textile Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art. I thank Dr. Margeret Ordonez, Curator of the Historic Textile and Costume Collection of the University of Rhode Island for bringing Mary C. Whitlock to my attention. Yvonne Paterson very kindly showed her late ‘Aunt’ Elsa Euland’s textiles to me. Kristina Johnson enthusiastically showed her collection of batiks and information on Ethel Wallace. The collections of the Smithsonian Institution (SI) were an important resource in this research. I am grateful for the commitment to this valuable institution shown by its staff and by the United States Congress. At the SI National Museum of American History, David Bergevin, Office of Imaging, and Kathy Dirks, Museum Conservator, Textiles Collection, were extremely helpful. At the SI National Museum of American Art Richard Sorensen was efficient. At the SI Archives of American the staff was very vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction