
Artscope Magazine Review
Looking at the paintings in the outer
galleries, selected by Meehan, I was
reminded of this gown as I stood in
front of another gown, also un"lled,
except for a ghostly presence. In lush,
coruscating oils, Laura Schi! Bean
has summoned in “Putting Herself
Out There” the archetypal ball gown,
which recalls all those occasions
when special clothes bodied forth
the excitement of a debut. Splashes,
drips and brushed slashes of white
bring this apparitional gown to
life on a midnight background. For
me, this ball gown was a feminine
counterpoint to the freestanding
bathrobes suavely posed by Jim Dine
as “Pop” art dawned in the 1960s.
Bean’s gown has an imaginative force
and elusive presence all its own: it
creates a decorative and decorous
ruckus with exquisite drawing and a
concert of memories.