silhouette

anyone out there old enuf to remember when silhouettes were in vogue?


then & now 

altho the silhouette began in antiquity it became a popular art form abt 250 years ago. everyone from royalty to Robert Burns wd turn sideways while an artist cut out their profile in black paper.

Wallie Spatz was a Clevelander who began her career as a silhouette artist in WW2. she'd cut the outlines of servicemen in USO clubs in California. she did my profile in the spring of 1960 & Mother has had it on the wall above her desk for years. last report was that Spatz is 90 & lives in Port Charlotte FL where she's a trustee of the cultural center. her work surfaces from time to time on ebay.

altho parents no longer line up their children to have silhouettes made the significance of the form continues. one presumes that Ray Johnson must've had his done as a child.