Also this issue:

Feeling the '50s
CP's theater critics go Crazy for 1812 Productions’ stellar homage to 1950s comedy.
-David Anthony Fox and Toby Zinman

Taste Treat
Kitsch and high art cohabitate at Wexler Gallery's current show.
-Susan Hagen

Philly-Nutt-Crak-Up
-Kristina Weise

Cirque loize
-Deni Kasrel

Santa Claus is Coming Out
-Debra Auspitz

Artifacts of the Improbable
-Paul Burress

Paul Taylor Dance
-Janet Anderson

The Consul
-Lou Camp

December 12-18, 2002

art

Dolls to Remember

by Robin Rice

An exhibition of more than 200 historical dolls from the collections of Dr. Reginia Perry and Barbara Whiteman, black doll collector and director of the Philadelphia Doll Museum, can be appreciated on several levels. The simple enjoyment of fantasy and the magic of miniaturization is enough to delight children and anyone who loves dolls and pretty clothes. But the show can lend itself to a more complex exploration of social and political issues inherent in the way we depict ourselves and our culture through these small, idealized self-portraits. Though mostly devoted to 20th-century dolls, it includes a few rare examples of early German-made brown-skinned baby dolls, whose gold earrings perhaps reflect the maker’s ideas about “exotic” Africans, early American rag dolls and small wooden African Aqua’ba statuettes which were originally intended to bring luck to expectant mothers. A few “dolls” represent famous African Americans, like Thurgood Marshall in his Supreme Court Justice robes.

Several wedding parties are clustered in one display area. The custom of the white bridal gown came into being during the Victorian era. Before that, a bride simply wore her best dress; however, with the exception of a sleek "Second Time Around Bride" these brides all wear white lace, satin and tulle, though each reflects a different era of fashion, romance and feminine beauty. The 1950s bride with "sleeping eyes" has a fabulous pearl-encrusted hat reminiscent of the 1920s.

A corner devoted to extreme glamour is not surprisingly inhabited mostly by long-limbed, Barbie-style fashion dolls. They include fairy-tale heroines like Cinderella and Rapunzel, with differing skin tones. Several fashion dolls wear costumes by "name" designers like Byron Lars and Bob Mackie. In fact, in a video interview placed near the end of the exhibition, Dr. Perry reveals that her favorite doll in the show wears a regal Bob Mackie number in glittering lamé.

An elaborate holiday setup in the center of the gallery is arranged in domestic vignettes. Some of the earliest baby dolls, placed at the very end of the show, have charming wicker perambulators. Signage is surprisingly minimal, though the video adds information. Young people will experience uncomplicated pleasure in "Dolls to Remember," while parents or grandparents may remember back when there weren't so many African-American dolls.

Dolls to Remember, Through Jan. 10, The African American Museum in Philadelphia, 701 Arch St., 215-574-0380