Two mannequins in men’s suits hang out at the top of a marble staircase in the Charles Allis Art Museum. A card pinned to one reads:
My father said, “Don’t go
To a burlesque show;
You’ll see things you shouldn’t see.”
And he was right,
For the very next night
I saw Father in the row in front of me.”
On that saucy note, we’re primed for “More on Less: The History of Burlesque in America from Lydia Thompson to Amber Ray.” Curators Annemarie Sawkins and Martha Chaiklin dress scholarly research and collectible ephemera with a wink and shimmy of sequins, feathers and fishnet stockings. As a performance genre, burlesque is described as “popular, lowbrow entertainment,” and by photographer Katharina Bosse as “a kind of old-fashioned striptease, with the emphasis on the tease, not the nudity.” Historian Robert Allen proposes that in the late-19th century it was “the most thoroughly feminized form of theatrical entertainment in the history of the American stage to that time.”
Enjoying a revival during the past 25 years, Neo-Burlesque costumes and photographs are joined by show programs, magazines and other vintage items. Amber Ray, one of today’s best-known performers, contributes a number of pieces including her Lotus Blossom costume. It is a pink, blue and purple swirl of diaphanous skirt and sleeves, shown on a voluptuous mannequin posed as though on the stage. During a recent visit, one of the figure’s pasties spontaneously popped off. The exhibition does not reveal the secrets of their application.
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Alongside the souvenirs of burlesque shows past and present are works by artists on related themes. Photographer Garry Winogrand maintains a sensual mystique in images like moments of fuzzed-out film noir. Conversely, Katharina Bosse photographs performers like Dirty Martini in the light of day. Martini poses outside on a red carpet, a colorful echo of her giant ostrich plume fans and heels. In the background, a table littered with Diet Coke cans is a reminder of ordinary life while her starkly illuminated body in the sunlight argues for the simultaneous reality of fantasy.
“More on Less: The History of Burlesque in America from Lydia Thompson to Amber Ray” continues through July 5 at the Charles Allis Art Museum, 1801 N. Prospect Ave.
