The Met’s Costume Institute Needs an Art History Lesson
ARTnews criticizes “Costume Art,” the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s spring Costume Institute exhibition, for what it calls weak art-historical comparisons between fashion and artworks displayed side by side. Curated by Andrew Bolton and installed in new galleries off the Met’s atrium, the show pairs garments by designers including Charles James and CFGNY with works from the Met collection ranging from ancient Greek sculpture to Andy Warhol screenprints. The article notes that the Costume Institute’s popularity has surged in part due to Anna Wintour, who has chaired the Met Gala since 1995, and it reports that Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos are listed as lead supporters of “Costume Art,” contributing a reported $10 million tied to this year’s Met Gala amid protests over wealth and Amazon’s role in ICE raids. While the piece praises one specific pairing—a 1997 Jean Paul Gaultier shirt with a 1971 Joe Brainard drawing, linked through shared imagery and the artists’ AIDS-related deaths—it argues many other juxtapositions are vague and unconvincing.
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This story was covered in Venice on the Edge, Museums Get Schooled