Art doll
Art dolls are dolls created by artists and intended as expressive and unique art objects rather than children's toys. Art dolls made by professional artists may be considered fine art. Made using a wide variety of styles and media, some are abstract or tribal, while others are incredibly realistic. They range from dolls with pre-manufactured parts to being wholly fabricated by the artist or sculptor. The term "art dolls" usually refers to human-like dolls, but not always. Art dolls can depict animals, mythical creatures, or abstract beings.
Art dolls differ from mass-produced children's dolls. Even though the word doll is attached, art dolls are not playthings. Art dolls are made by artists as an expression rather than to create a child's play toy.
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[edit] Creative skills
Art dolls demand a wide range of many skills and technologies, including but not only, sculpting, painting and costuming. Technicalities involve knowledge of the various clays used create a human or human-like sculpture. Most art dolls are dressed, requiring sewing. Some are high fashion while some are period or fantasy.
The figure or doll is usually dressed or draped in fabrics so that costuming can be elaborate or simple. Sewing and color sense is very important, similar to a composition if this were a drawing or painting, adding a the sense of time and place. The face is the most important feature, portraiture is another feature of the process. An expressive face or telling smile can elevate a doll to art. Just as the Mona Lisa rises to the level of fine art through skilled techniques of representation and modelling of the form, a well-crafted figure rises from be a doll to an art doll.
[edit] Props
Many doll artists like to create context for their artwork as well. Elaborate settings and props bring additional context to their art, mostly done to draw the viewer deeper into the artist's and the creature's world. An analogy would be the difference between a play and a movie. While the same story can be told as a play and hold the audiences' attention, a movie allows a director to have a much more elaborate set, drawing the audience further into the story.
[edit] Materials
Various mixed media may be used to create art dolls. While many are made of fabric, other media such as paperclay, polymer clays, wax, wood and porcelain can be used for heads, limbs and hands or for the entire body. Some artist use pre-made wigs, while others may sculpt the hair whether it is mohair, real or synthetic hair or other materials. Some artists have used yarn, string and even burlap to create hair. Wool, felt and cloth are among the many variations for making skin.
[edit] Demand
One of a kind (OOAK) art dolls often command fine art prices from many hundreds to thousands of dollars. These dolls are appreciated by a select group of collectors. The general public's understanding of art dolls has increased tremendously recently. Many books featuring established and emerging doll artists are available. Several artist groups such as the National Institute of American Doll Artists promote this art form.
Collectors enjoy dolls created by specific artists, but the works of aspiring art doll artists and dolls created based upon certain themes are also appreciated. The artist action figures of Michael Leavitt are a good example of one artist's extended series of OOAK dolls. Another highly collectible artist is Canadian Marina Bychkova whose elaborately figured ball-jointed ceramic dolls fetch prices from AUD$5,000 to AUD$45,000 and are collected by the likes of Louis Vuitton designers.[1]
[edit] Events
In 2008's Melbourne Fringe Festival artists contributed their own concept dolls to an event called "Totem". Dolls included Rachel Hughes' bald calico dolls and fur fabric fantasy items among the 120 exhibited dolls. The curator, Sayraphim Lothian, who exhibited a doll of her own, has worked as puppet technician on the film Where the Wild Things Are.[2]
[edit] Controversy
In 2010, Facebook banned images of an art doll posted by Sydney jeweller Victoria Buckley. Buckley had been using a semi-naked doll to display jewellery items in her shop window without public comment but the photographs posted on her Facebook page were deemed unsuitable content and resulted in public controversy.[3] The doll in question was one of Bychkova's.
