For his first museum commission and solo museum presentation, Dallas-native artist Chris Schanck is creating a contemporary work inspired by the late-19th century Martelé dressing table in the DMA’s collection. Made of found objects from the immediate neighborhood of the artist’s Detroit studio, Schanck’s dressing table will be coated in resin and aluminum foil—a reference to the Dallas aluminum factory where, along with his father, Schanck worked when he was young. The two dressing tables will be presented together to form a conversation about craftsmanship, material, and the vanity that drives them.
Focus installation.
Admission is FREE.
Curbed Vanity: A Contemporary Foil by Chris Schanck is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art. The Dallas Museum of Art is supported, in part, by the generosity of DMA Members and donors, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the citizens of Dallas through the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture.
Image: William C. Codman, Martelé dressing table and stool, 1899, silver, glass, fabric, and ivory, Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., in honor of Dr. Charles L. Venable, 2000.356.A-B.McD; Chris Schanck, proposal for Curbed Vanity, 2019, aluminum foil and pencil on paper