 
Blusher: Art, Makeup, Materiality accompanies the show of the same name, which took place at Leicester Gallery, De Montfort University, in summer 2025.
Makeup is a malleable medium; painterly and symbolic, with an ability to conceal and transform appearance. It is a marker of both female emancipation and our subjugation to the dictates of a patriarchal capitalist culture.
Makeup is often referred to as an art in glossy magazines and coffee table books. But how does art deal with makeup? The visual, material, and experiential connections, between making-up and artmaking are apparent, but makeup’s connection with femininity problematises it, connecting it to artforms and aesthetics rich in colour and decoration which have historically been considered trivial and unworthy of serious academic interest. Beyond this, patriarchal societies have always had a complex relationship with makeup; ill at ease with its role in beautification, deception, and sexual allure, but appreciative of a ’naturally' made-up female face. Consequently, for long periods of history makeup has been a taboo in polite society.
Inspired by the formal transformative qualities of makeup, alongside its hapticity, role in ritual, and position in the commodification and codification of gender and race, Blusher unashamedly foregrounds this versatile medium, with work by artists that showcase makeup’s multifarious meanings in a variety of media.
Published by Transition Editions this 68 page publication includes images and words from the participating artists, which include Athen Kardashian & Nina Mhach Durban, Lisa Milroy, Cary Kwok, Paul Kindersley, Sally Kindberg, Stacey Green and Michael Fullerton. And essays by Alex Michon, Hillary Belzer (founder of The Makeup Museum) and exhibition curator Cathy Lomax.
£5 + UK postage
  
  
  
  
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