Gloria Vanderbilt

American author, fashion designer, and socialite
Also known as: Gloria Laura Morgan Vanderbilt
Quick Facts
In full:
Gloria Laura Morgan Vanderbilt
Born:
February 20, 1924, New York, New York, U.S.
Died:
June 17, 2019, New York, New York (aged 95)
House / Dynasty:
Vanderbilt family
Notable Family Members:
spouse Sidney Lumet
spouse Leopold Stokowski
son Anderson Cooper

Gloria Vanderbilt (born February 20, 1924, New York, New York, U.S.—died June 17, 2019, New York, New York) was an American socialite, artist, author, actress, and designer of textiles and fashion who was often in the public eye for her social life and professional exploits.

Born into the prominent Vanderbilt family of New York, Gloria was thrust into the media spotlight from the moment of her birth. Her father died when she was a baby, and she spent much of her early childhood in Paris. At age 10 she became the centre of an highly publicized custody case between her mother and her aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who had been housing young Gloria on her New York estate for some two years. Gloria was eventually given to the care of her aunt, with her mother having visitation rights. It was through her aunt’s influence that Gloria first became interested in art; Whitney herself was a sculptor and the founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

At age 17 Vanderbilt dropped out of high school to marry the talent agent Pasquale (“Pat”) De Cicco. Soon after the couple divorced in 1945, she attracted press for her marriage to conductor Leopold Stokowski, who was more than 40 years her senior; their marriage also ended in divorce, in 1955. In the late 1940s Vanderbilt gave her first informal art show in New York City, which was followed in the coming decades by numerous one-woman shows in major cities across the country. In 1954 she took her ambitions to the stage, making her debut in a summer-stock production of The Swan, and the following year she made her Broadway debut in The Time of Your Life. In 1956 she married director Sidney Lumet; the pair divorced in 1963. Later in 1963 Vanderbilt married writer Wyatt Emory Cooper, to whom she remained married until his death in 1978. With him she had two of her four sons—one of whom, Anderson Cooper, became a prominent news anchor for CNN.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:
Britannica Quiz
Poetry: First Lines

Though she continued to appear periodically onstage and on television into the 1960s, Vanderbilt gradually focused on her art and on writing. Vanderbilt’s first book, a collection of poetry titled Love Poems, was published in 1955. It focused on Vanderbilt’s search for love, drawn in part from the diary she had kept since childhood. Among her other writings were four memoirs: Once upon a Time: A True Story (1985), which chronicles her life until age 17, including the custody battle; Black Knight, White Knight (1987), about her adult life; A Mother’s Story (1996), in which she detailed the tragic loss of her son Carter, who committed suicide in her presence in 1988; and It Seemed Important at the Time: A Romance Memoir (2004), which discusses her romantic exploits with such notables as Howard Hughes, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, and Gene Kelly. Vanderbilt also penned several works of fiction, including Obsession: An Erotic Tale (2009), which raised eyebrows for its racy content. With Anderson, she wrote The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss, and conversations between the two form the basis of the documentary Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper (both 2016). In addition to her myriad paintings and books, Vanderbilt was also known for her line of designer blue jeans, which was especially popular in the late 1970s.

Alison Eldridge

Native American art, the visual art of the aboriginal inhabitants of the Americas, often called American Indians. For a further discussion of the visual art of the Americas produced in the period after European contact, see Latin American art.

The nature and elements of Native American art

The role of the artist

The very use of the word art suggests one of the basic differences between European or European-derived and American Indian concepts. For not only did few American Indian groups allow art to become a major way of life, as in the West, but many Native American languages even lack a term meaning “art” or “artist.” If one wished to refer to a beautiful basket or a well-carved sculpture, it was usually necessary to rely upon such terms as “well-done,” “effective,” or perhaps “powerful” (in the magical sense). And the concept of an artist was largely of a person who was simply better at the job than was another. Generally, artists were accorded special significance only where wealth was a major factor in the culture. The elite of many cultures, whether wealthy in their own right or (more commonly) by having attained a high religious office, supported groups of artists who produced memorial and religious art.

Although American Indian people may not have considered artistic skill in terms of a vocation, the difference between a well-woven basket and a careless piece of work or a particularly well-designed carving and a crudely made example did not go unnoticed. Fine workmanship commanded a premium long before European contact, and with the advent of the monetary system, it was even more highly prized.

Collective versus individual art

The basic role of the American Indian artist is the same as that of the artist in any culture: to arouse an emotional response in his or her audience. In Native American cultures, the artist’s ability to communicate successfully depended largely upon the recognition of the force of tradition. The social organization of the various tribes allowed less latitude for experimentation than Western cultures and usually compelled the artist to work in familiar channels. Yet, within this rigid framework of tradition, there was sometimes a surprising degree of freedom of expression. There are recorded instances of individuals having made considerable changes in the art (and the economy) of their tribes. In North America, perhaps the most striking have been the careers of Nampeyó, the famed Hopi potter, and María Martínez and Julián Martínez, of San Ildefonso pueblo. Through sheer individual talent these people achieved a personal triumph by developing a style that not only was copied by other artists but in time also was regarded as “traditional” in that particular village. Although there is no way of knowing how often this happened in the past, there are suggestions that it occurred at Mimbres, among the Haida slate carvers, and quite possibly in some areas of the so-called Mound Builder cultures of the Southeast.

Origins of designs

The origins of most Native American decorative designs cannot be traced accurately today; most of them are lost in antiquity. Many obviously came from natural forms, while others are simple developments of geometric or lineal motifs. Some have become so interwoven with alien concepts—Western, after the advent of the European, for example—that it is impossible to completely unravel their sources. There is evidence, however, that some of the original forms were creations of individual artists and were often the result of a vision quest. To the American Indian the world of the vision quest is mysterious, a place where the soul can leave the body, participate in many strange activities, and see many unusual sights. Since many of the designs seen or creatures encountered during the vision quest are regarded as protective forms or spirit-beings, these would be carefully re-created during waking hours. Non-artists would occasionally describe their dream creatures to a designated artist so that they could be recorded on hide, in wood, or in stone. But since these supernatural visions were extremely personal, they were usually recorded by the individual; hence, they vary tremendously in aesthetic quality.

Because art designs were regarded as personal property, an artist could buy a design or receive it as a gift from its creator, but to appropriate and use it for his or her own purposes was taboo.