Lady Shalimar Vaudeville Mixed Media Drawing, 1988

About the Item

"Sketch by Lady Shalimar (Shalamar)" aka Frances Montague (1905?-1996) of Mitzi and Mitzer. Circa 1988. A wonderful graphic rendered in great detail in glitter, ballpoint pen and ink, marker, watercolor mixed media on paper. Reminiscent of the Vaudeville and theater posters of Toulouse Lautrec. Shalimar had several solo exhibitions in the 2010s. Paper affixed to matte board. Good overall condition with some minor staining on the edges and corners due to age. No visible rips, tears or restorations. The image measures approximately 23.75" wide x 18" high. The overall approximate measurements with the matte board are 28" wide x 22" high. Huff Post by Priscilla Frank, August 26, 2016: Self-taught artist Lady Shalimar, born Frances Montague in 1906, adopted the name in the middle of her life, inspired by a brand of fancy perfume. The remainder of Shalimar’s life would similarly be dominated by an interest in fantasy and adornment, with every element of her being exaggerated, embellished and dripping in sparkles. For the last 20 years of her life, Montague made autobiographical artworks of her life at New York’s Healing Arts Initiative (HAI), decadent line drawings depicting what she believed to be her many accomplishments, punctuated with swells of watercolor and squiggles of glitter. In Montague’s drawings, she switches chameleon-like between roles as an opera singer, belly dancer, lion tamer and ballerina. Notes scribbled alongside the drawings designate particular locations, including the Moscow State Circus, the Canton China Peoples Theatre, and New York’s Diamond Horseshoe nightclub. And yet, according to HAI, Montague suffered from agoraphobia, a fear of the outdoors. It’s not clear whether or not she ever visited the specific places noted in her work. “That’s the funny thing about it, you can’t know what she really did or what she just knew about or made up,” gallerist and collector Kerry Schuss explained in an interview with The Huffington Post. “They’re all self-portraits but it’s kind of impossible that she did all these things.” Schuss currently has a series of Montague’s work on view at his Lower East Side Gallery. With the drawings, there’s a massive book in which Montague, who passed away in 1996, recounts the fantastical details of her life. “Lady Montague made her debut in a fascinating place!” Montague writes. “The Paris Opera Theatre, her mother’s dressing room.” Whether she was really born in the Paris Opera house dressing room seems dubious, but as Schuss expressed, “when you spoke with her, she made it sound so real.” Montague began creating art at the age of 70 years old, when, if the stories are true, she already had lifetimes of experience under her belt. She’d chronicled her adventures in delicate ballpoint pen drawings, in which factual and anatomical accuracy gave way to the magical melding of memory and imagination. Alongside her images, Montague kept notes, recounting supposed performances at theaters and clubs. Occasionally, she’d add snippets of reviews as well, most of which were quite complimentary. “Very exciting!” “A wonderful presentation!” “Star!” In one drawing, Montague dons a gauzy lime green gown accented with pink roses, an orange cape, and matching green fingerless gloves. The garment slips down to reveal her breasts, though she seems anything but bashful at the wardrobe malfunction. In another, illustrating her role in a “Chinatown Theatre,” Montague wears an elaborate Chinese-style headdress, drizzling gold medallions from its turquoise wings. All images contain Montague’s signature sharp eyebrows, parentheses flipped on their sides, and a large birthmark beneath her lips. She had both in real life, although she drew them on.

Dimensions:

Height: 18 in (45.72 cm)Width: 23.75 in (60.33 cm)Depth: 0.07 in (1.78 mm)

Style:

Post-Modern (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Paint,Paper,Hand-Painted

Place of Origin:

United States

Period:

1980-1989

Date of Manufacture:

Circa 1980-90

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use. Paper affixed to matte board. Good overall condition with some minor staining on the edges and corners due to age. No visible rips, tears or restorations.

Seller Location:

Garnerville, NY

Reference Number:

Seller: ARBF12.07.23.31stDibs: LU1236237447162

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