{"id":30098,"date":"2018-09-10T13:14:24","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T13:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artzealous.com\/?p=30098"},"modified":"2018-09-10T13:46:17","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T13:46:17","slug":"heavenly-bodies-surpasses-one-million-visitors-at-the-met","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/heavenly-bodies-surpasses-one-million-visitors-at-the-met\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavenly Bodies Surpasses One Million Visitors at The Met"},"content":{"rendered":"

You might have heard that The Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a> celebrated the one-millionth visitor to <\/span>Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination<\/span><\/em> on August 23rd making the exhibition the most attended ever sponsored by The Costume Institute and the show continues for another month. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Your first thought on hearing about the <\/span>Heavenly Bodies<\/span><\/a><\/em> exhibition might have been: The Met\u2019s having a Catholic fashion show? Really? If the first image that popped into your mind was Black Watch Catholic school uniforms or one of Madonna\u2019s 80\u2019s outfits you are not alone. The controversy stirred by Rihanna\u2019s Met Gala outfit aside, this is a thoughtful exhibition that the Met and the Vatican planned for over a year. It is the largest exhibition The Costume Institute has ever presented. Attendance has surpassed two of the Met\u2019s other blockbuster fashion exhibits, <\/span>China: Through the Looking Glass<\/span> and <\/span>Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty<\/span><\/em>. The exhibition begins in the medieval sculpture hall at the Met Fifth Ave. It is so large that it expands uptown to the Met Cloisters in northern Manhattan. Andrew Bolton, director of The Costume Institute, and the exhibition staff did an outstanding job designing the exhibition.<\/span><\/p>\n

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An exhibition focusing on Catholicism and fashion was bound to provoke some controversy about cultural appropriation and the sexualization of religious attire, and it has. However, Andrew Bolton Head Curator of The Costume Institute states on the Met\u2019s blog<\/a> that the show intends to analyze \u201cthe role dress plays within the Roman Catholic Church and the role the Roman Catholic Church plays within the fashionable imagination.\u201d The majority of the designers featured in <\/span>Heavenly Bodies<\/span><\/i>, Bolton says, \u201cwere raised in the Roman Catholic tradition. While many of them no longer practice Catholicism and their relationships to it vary considerably, most acknowledge its significant influence over their imaginations.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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Eleanor Heartney explored this theme in her important book <\/span>Postmodern Heretics: Catholic Imagination in Contemporary Art<\/span><\/em> in which she explored contemporary artists who are strongly influenced by their upbringing in the Catholic Church, artists such as Andres Serrano, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Kiki Smith. Both Bolton and Heartney quote Andrew Greeley\u2019s book <\/span>T<\/span><\/i>he Catholic Imagination<\/span><\/em>,<\/span><\/i> “The Catholic imagination in all its many manifestations . . . tends to emphasize the metaphorical nature of creation.\u201d Bolton continues \u201cGreeley’s observations about the nature of Roman Catholicism reverberate throughout the exhibition’s themes, which will explore how the Catholic imagination has shaped the creativity of designers and how it is conveyed through their fashions. Forged and fueled by stories and images, the Catholic imagination operates on a narrative level, which is where its power lies and its resonance is felt.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jean Paul Gaultier, Ex-Voto, courtesy of author<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The overarching scope of the exhibit ranges from papal vestments, gold and jewel encrusted pectoral crosses and miters from the Vatican to top name contemporary designers. Some of the most outstanding pieces in the show are by French designer Jean Paul Gaultier whose work epitomized the Catholic imagination theme of the show with works like <\/span>Ex-Voto<\/span><\/em> and <\/span>Guadalupe<\/span><\/em> both from his Spring\/Summer collection 2007. <\/span>Ex-Voto<\/span><\/em> is an assemblage of religious ex-votos (metal repousse<\/a> devotional amulets) stitched together to form an evening dress. <\/span>Guadalupe<\/span><\/em> is a blue silk jersey dress with a beaded bleeding heart pierced by a sword an image culled from Marian devotion of the Immaculate Heart. Other favorites at the Met Fifth Ave are Alexander McQueen\u2019s birch plywood and leather winged ensemble and Christian Lacroix\u2019s <\/span>Wedding Ensemble<\/span><\/em>, 2009\u201310.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Christian Lacroix Wedding Ensemble, courtesy of author<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The show is too big to be contained at the 5th Ave building and continues to the Met Cloisters<\/a>. The Cloisters is an assemblage of several medieval monasteries from Europe reassembled on the banks of the Hudson. It is the ideal setting for an exhibition on religious inspired fashion. The most recognizable piece of art in the Met\u2019s collection at the Cloisters is the medieval tapestry, <\/span>The Unicorn in Captivity<\/span><\/em>, from the 15th century. It is nicely complemented in this exhibition by Thom Browne\u2019s <\/span>Wedding Ensemble,<\/span><\/em> 2018, which has a unicorn embroidered on it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Thom Browne Cloisters Unicorn, courtesy of author<\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Another wedding ensemble by Cristobal Balenciaga (House of Balenciaga spring 1967) is placed compellingly in a chapel where <\/span>Ava Maria<\/span><\/em> is playing. Other highlights include four black ensembles placed on high pedestals in an interior courtyard. The most striking of these being a cloak embellished with arch designs that echo the courtyard\u2019s arches designed for Valentino (Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli) 2015- 16 and a mysterious and beautifully situated red ensemble for House of Dior (John Galliano), 2006.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Valentino -Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Bolton concludes, \u201cWhile the fashions that comprise this journey might seem fanciful, they should not be dismissed lightly, for they not only embody the imaginative tradition of Catholicism but also exemplify its propensities for storytelling. As expressions of the Catholic imagination, they sing with distinctly enchanted and enchanting voices.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The exhibition closes on October 8th, so we highly suggest you experience it while you can.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

top image \/\/\u00a0House of Dior – John Galliano, courtesy of author<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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