R. L. Shep

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Robert Lee "Robb" Shep (born 27 February 1933) is an American writer, publisher and textile researcher. He is commonly known by his nom de plume, R. L. Shep. Shep is known primarily for his books on textile arts — costume and period etiquette — which are either reprints of 19th century monographies or compilations of primary sources.[1]

Early life

Robert Shep was born in Los Angeles, California to Ruth and Milton Shep; his four grandparents were Jews who emigrated to the United States from czarist Russia.[1][2]

In 1950, Shep graduated from Army and Navy Academy.[3] He received a Bachelor of Arts in Dramatic Art from the University of California, Berkeley in 1955. Shep continued his education, first at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London (1955–56), then at the American Institute of Foreign Trade in Glendale, Arizona.[1][4]

Career

In 1965, Shep began to sell imported and out-of-print books on costume and textiles. In 1981, he took the helm of The Textile Booklist.[1]

Shep first traveled to Nepal in 1978. Later, between 1983 and 2004, Shep made several trips to Bhutan and Northeastern India; collecting and studying Bhutanese and Northeastern Indian Naga textiles, particularly from the Maram tribe, exploring design themes that remain consistent, persisting in the work even as traditions change over time.[5][6]

On his return to the United States, Shep devoted two issues of The Textile Booklist to Bhutan (Winter 1984 and Spring 1984) which included illustrated articles.

The Seattle Textile and Rug Society sponsored two presentations by Shep, the first (1999) focused on silks from Northeastern India;[6] Naga textiles were the subject of the second.[5][7]

Shep also collected textiles from these regions. The core of his collection includes some thirty Naga blankets or shawls dating from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s, representing textile development during that period. Other items in the collection date from the early 20th century. This collection was given to the Fowler Museum at UCLA.

At the end of 2004, the balance of R. L. Shep's collection of antique and contemporary hand-loomed textiles was given to the Mingei Museum in San Diego, with some of the Shep collection going to the Henry Art Gallery, at the University of Washington.[7]

Professional affiliations

R.L. Shep is an honorary member of the Textile Society of America. He has served on the Costume Society of America's national board of directors from 1985 to 1987.[1][8]

Other professional affiliations have included the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, the Seattle Textile and Rug Society, Pacific Textile Arts, the Costume Society of Ontario, the Costume Society of Great Britain, and the Australian Forum for Textile Art, Ltd..[1][8]

Publications

According to Shep, his interest in reprinting technical textile books from the 19th century started with the discovery of a copy of Louis Devere's "The Handbook of Practical Cutting on the Centre Point System" and was encouraged by his "mentor", the costumer Betty Williams.[9] He has published and often edited the following books:

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Periodicals

In 1981 R.L. Shep purchased The Textile Booklist, a longstanding quarterly primarily devoted to lists of books on industrial textiles. He retained the industrial textile listings, but expanded coverage to include lists of new titles on costume and textile arts, adding reviews of some titles, and original articles on related subjects. At the end of 1984, Shep sold the Textile Booklist, which continued for several years under new ownership. From 1996 to 1997, Shep published and edited Rags: Quarterly Review of Costume, Clothing & Ethnic Textile Books, which offered in-depth reviews by textile professionals.[23][24][25]

Endowments

R.L. Shep's endowments include a triennial symposium on textiles and dress at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), an annual ethnic textiles book award and an endowment at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History.

In 1998, Shep founded the Triennial R. L. Shep Symposium of Textiles and Dress at LACMA. The symposia are supported by the R.L. Shep Symposium Endowment for Costume and Textiles. The first symposium, Dress as Transformation: Creating Experience in Theater and Masquerade, was held in April 1999. The second symposium, Miracles & Mischief: Noh and Kyogen Theater in Japan was held in December 2002.[26] It was the first of these symposiums to be held in association with an exhibit[27] and catalog.[28] The third symposium, 17th Century Textiles & Dress, was held on 9 April 2005 in association with the exhibit Images of Fashion from the Court of Louis XIV. The fourth symposium, Talking Cloth – New Studies on Indonesian Textiles, was held on 18 October 2008[29] in association with the exhibit Five Centuries of Indonesian Textiles: Selections from the Mary Hunt Kahlenberg Collection [30] and catalog[31] It gave participants a "rare opportunity to scrutinize remarkable textiles from india and to reevaluate issues relating to the methodology of the field".[32]

The fifth symposium, Fashioning a Collection: Vision and Viewpoints, was held on 15 January 2011 in association with the exhibit Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700–1915, with an exhibition catalog by LACMA Senior Curator and Head, Costume and Textiles Department, Sharon S. Takeda, and Kaye Durland Spilker, Curator, Costume and Textiles Department at LACMA.[33][34][35][36]

Since 2000, the annual R. L. Shep Ethnic Textiles Book Award has honored a book in Ethnic Textile studies. The "esteemed"[37] award is a $750 prize funded by an endowment established by R.L. Shep in 2000. It is administered by the Textile Society of America.[38] The first winner was Otag-I Humayun: The Ottoman Imperial Tent Complex by Nurhan Atasoy.[39]

Since 2003, the R. L. Shep Endowment at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History has been used to support the exhibitions and the publication of their catalogs. For example, in 2006, the Fowler used Shep Endowment funding for the exhibition Material Choices: Refashioning Bast and Leaf Fibers in Asia and the Pacific[40] and its catalog,[41] which also received the R.L. Shep Ethnic Textiles Book Award in 2007.

In 2010 the R.L. Shep Endowment provided funding for a book and three major exhibits at the Fowler. The first was a successful show, Meet Me at the Center of the Earth by textile and performance artist Nick Cave. Also in 2010, Weavers’ Stories from Island Southeast Asia presented videos of weavers and batik artists from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and East Timor, talking about social and economic change, and its relation to their individual artistic choices; the videos were accompanied by textiles created by the artists especially for the exhibit.[42] The third project supported by the Shep Endowment in 2010 was the publication of a book, Nini Towok's Spinning Wheel: Cloth and the Cycle of Life in Kerek, Java by Rens Heringa, and the concurrent presentation of an exhibit of the same name.[43][44][45]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Robert Lee Shep." Who's Who in America, 59th edition. VIP Number: 00328926. New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who's Who, 2005.
  2. ↑ Markels, Bobby. "Talking with Robb Shep." Mendocino: Big River News, March 1979. pp.3-4.
  3. ↑ "The Adjutant 1950". Carlsbad, California: Corps of Cadets, Army and Navy Academy. Phoenix, Arizona: Tyler Printing Company: Year Book Division, 1950. pp. 14-15, 17-18, 30, 73.
  4. ↑ Thunderbird 1961. Phoenix, AZ: Tyler Printing Company, Year Book Division. p.48.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Naga Textiles with Robb Shep, Meeting Announcement. Seattle Textile and Rug Society (STARS). Accessed 13 November 2010.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Temples & Textiles of Northern India". Seattle Textile and Rug Society (STARS). Accessed 13 November 2011.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Notice, "House Tour Featuring the Ikat Collections of Robb Shep and Irene Joshi" Seattle Textile and Rug Society (STARS). Accessed 13 November 2010.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Business Profile of Robb Shep", The Costume Society, Zoom Information, Inc., 2010.
  9. ↑ Shep, R. L. "Foreword." The Victorian Tailor: An Introduction to Period Tailoring. By Jason Maclochlainn. London: Batsford, an imprint of Anova Books (2011). p.7.
  10. ↑ Review: Kennedy, John (1992). Australian Library Review 9:339-340
  11. ↑ Review: Beard, J. C. (1992). Library Association Record 94:199
  12. ↑ Review: Gluckman, Dale (1987). Ornament 10:28
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Review: Seligman, Kevin L. (1988). Dress 14:89-90
  14. ↑ Review: Seligman, Kevin L. (1989). Costume 23:127
  15. ↑ Review: Brooks-Myers, Inez (1990). Dress: 16:93-95
  16. ↑ Review: Cariou, Gail (1994). Costume 28:128-129
  17. ↑ Review: Wong, S. (1994). New and forthcoming. TCI: Theatre Crafts International, 28(3), 60.
  18. ↑ Review: Casey, Ellen Miller (1998). TD&T 34.2:62-63
  19. ↑ Review: Cleveland, Debra Regan (1997). Dress 24:81-82
  20. ↑ Review: Cleveland, Debra Regan (1997). Dress 24:82-83
  21. ↑ Review: Edwards, Lesley (1999). Costume 33:146-147
  22. ↑ Review: Barbour, David, and Natalie Zmuda (2001). Men's Wearhouse. (books & videos). Entertainment Design Sept. 2001: 45.
  23. ↑ An Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities (January/March 1981-1984). Williamston, Mich. & P. Thomson, publishers.
  24. ↑ Markels, Bobby. Interview: R.L. Shep. Caspar, California: Coast Arts (1997). pp. 1, 3.
  25. ↑ Rags: Quarterly Review of Costume, Clothing & Ethnic Textile Books (1989-1997). R.L. Shep, editor & contributor. Mendocino, CA: R.L. Shep.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Miracles & Mischief: Noh and Kyogen Theater in Japan Past Exhibitions: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Accessed 20 April 2011. Archived July 20, 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  28. ↑ Takeda, Sharon Sadako, Monica Bethe, et al. Miracles & Mischief: Noh and Kyogen Theater in Japan (2002). Los Angeles: Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ "Symposium: Talking Cloth—New Studies on Indonesian Textiles." LACMA Talks & Courses :Archived Talks (2008). Accessed 20 March 2011. Archived July 20, 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  31. ↑ Barnes, Ruth. Five Centuries of Indonesian Textiles: Selections from the Mary Hunt Kahlenberg Collection. Ruth Barnes and Mary Hunt Kahlenberg, ed. Prestel: Verlagsgruppe Random House GmbH, 2008.
  32. ↑ Reichle, Natasha (2008). Hali, 158:125
  33. ↑ Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700–1915. LACMA: Art Exhibitions (2011). Accessed 20 March 2011.
  34. ↑ "LACMA fashions a new reputation." Culture Monster: L.A.Times Online (2 January 2009). Accessed April 20, 2011.
  35. ↑ Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700–1915. LACMA: Art Exhibitions (2011). Accessed 20 March 2011. Archived July 20, 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  36. ↑ Takeda, Sharon Sadako, Kaye Durland Spilker. Fashioning fashion: European dress in detail, 1700-1915. Preface by John Galliano. Essay by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell. Contributions by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, Clarissa M. Esguerra, and Nicole LaBouff. Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich & New York: DelMonico Books/Prestel (2010).
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ The Annual R. L. Shep Ethnic Textiles Book Award. Textile Society of America (2011). Accessed 24 April 2011.
  39. ↑ Atasoy, Nurhan. Otag-I Humayun: The Ottoman Imperial Tent Complex. Istanbul: MEPA (Medya Pazarlama Taskin ve Ticaret, A.S.) (1999).
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. ↑ Hamilton, Roy W. and B. Lynne Milgram. Material Choices: Refashioning Bast and Leaf Fibers in Asia and the Pacific. Los Angeles: The Fowler Museum at UCLA (2006).
  42. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. ↑ Abarbanel, Stacey Ravel. Fowler Museum presents 'Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth,' Jan 10–May 30, 2010, UCLA Newsroom (23 October 2009). Accessed 20 January 2011.
  44. ↑ Weavers’ Stories from Island Southeast Asia, Fowler Museum at UCLA (2010). Accessed 20 January 2011.
  45. ↑ Heringa, Rens. Nini Towok's Spinning Wheel: Cloth and the Cycle of Life in Kerek, Java. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History at UCLA with funding assistance from the R.L. Shep Endowment, 2010.

External links

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