Rare 1980s Tim Jocelyn Art-to-Wear
"Tim Jocelyn (1952-1986) was a brilliant, articulate, and innovative artist who rose to prominence in the tumultuous Queen Street art scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. His fascination and facility with fabric led him first to the manufacture of unique and beautiful fashion accessories, but he branched out into other areas, making brilliant and provocative banners, furniture coverings, and screens. Jocelyn turned increasingly away from fashion to enter wholeheartedly the avant-garde art world.
Tim Jocelyn's partner and fellow artist, Andy Fabo, was a founding member of the influential ChromaZone group. It was as an associate of the group that Jocelyn became curator of the Chromaliving show in 1984. Toronto's NOW magazine rated Chromaliving as the single most important art show of the last 20 years: A landmark manifesto show, according to NOW, Chromaliving brought over 100 artists working in every medium into one recently closed high-end department store to celebrate the end of the death of painting. It was a fabulous, formative, anarchic event, featuring faux-fashion shows, seminal installations, and funny, subversive performances." - The introduction from the book The Art of Tim Jocelyn.
Tim Jocelyn was an important Toronto based textile artist who died from an AIDS-related illness at age 34 in 1986. According to the The Tim Jocelyn Art Foundation "he left behind a legacy of love and talent unequaled in the Toronto art scene....Tim Jocelyn's brief yet significant contribution to Toronto's Queen Street art scene began in 1981, when he and Andy Fabo organized The Fashion Show, Jaywalking the Intersection of Fashion & Art at the Theatre Centre."
He participated in many exhibitions at the Ontario Crafts Council, Harbourfront, at the ChromaZone venues, and even had a retrospective exhibition at the venerable Olga Korper Gallery in 1983. Visual/ Rhythms, an outdoor exhibition at the Toronto Sculpture Garden in 1984 that incorporated three huge banners by Jocelyn, furthered public familiarity with his work. He was also included in a show of Canadian design at 49th Parallel Gallery in New York in 1985. It was not until after his death, how ever, that the larger players museums and public galleries began to take notice of this important body of work. A posthumous retrospective of his work, Fictions + Realities, was mounted at the Power Plant in Toronto in 1990. Shows organized in conjunction with the Tim Jocelyn Art Foundation have followed at the Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto (1996), the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa (1997), the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre in Guelph (2000) and the Royal Ontario Museum (2002). There is also a book on his work entitled "The Art of Tim Jocelyn", written by Sybil Goldstein, 2002.
He often used a technique where he "tattooed" metallic fabric onto silk - you see that in this piece. The tubular shape of the dress is further highlighted by the column down the front and back. Simple chairs sit at its base and birds fly above it. Each sleeve has a more elaborate chair placed like a crest on each The skirt is a simple gathered cream chiffon.
His pieces are exceedingly rare to come across on the open market. It is unlabelled but is guaranteed to be his work. It is unmistakable. Value for it has been quoted as potentially triple the list price but my client prefers to have it go to a good home and she has set the price despite being advised that it could go higher. It is rare, wonderful and should be considered as a true art piece and not just clothing. Museum quality condition.
Bust: 21" flat across from side seam to side seam
Waist: 21" flat across from side seam to side seam
Hips: 21" flat across from side seam to side seam
Length: 53" from top of shoulder to hem
Unlined and slips over the head to wear. Hand finished throughout. Some smudges on the silk chiffon of the skirt that may come out with additional soaking. I had it cleaned but did not want to handle it too much due to its importance and rarity.
Modern Sizing equivalent: LRG-XL
Item# DD900
This garment has been professionally cleaned, pressed and is odor free. Thoroughly checked over before shipping, it will be ready to wear upon arrival
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