by When Matthew Yokobosky saw French pop star Aya Nakamura sashay down the rain-slicked Pont des Arts in a gold Dior Haute Couture minidress at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics last summer, he knew he had to have the dress. for his upcoming Brooklyn Museum exhibit. .
Never mind that the 500 objects for “Solid Gold,” the museum’s marquee 200th the opening of the anniversary show on Saturday, almost finished by the time Nakamura, the most popular Francophone musician in the world, dazzled a global audience with a medley of the times “Pookie” and “Djadja” together with the musicians of the French Republican Guard. .
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The custom-made frock for the French Malian singer was designed by creative director of the women’s collection Maria Grazia Chiuri, and features hundreds of feathers painted gold and carefully hand-embroidered by Lemarié artisans.
“Seeing it is one thing [the dress] on TV,” Yokobosky tells WWD. “But when he came and we opened the crate, and saw all these golden rooster feathers, everyone gasped. It’s a pity when you see one of these garments up close, the fabrics, the techniques used to build them. People want to have those feelings.”
As a theme for a museum show, gold is a very broad and somewhat amorphous material. But its commemorative meanings were the museum’s bicentenary, and its broad range spanned every era of human history in form, style and function from the sarcophagi of ancient Egypt to the glittering gowns that designer John Galliano sent down the spring haute couture runway 2024. “Solid Gold” includes 250 objects from the museum’s archives and another 250 on loan.
The exhibition is organized into nine separate sections that explore different aspects of gold throughout history and culture from Ancient Gold to Fashion Gold to Crown: From the Queens of Egypt to the King of Hip-Hop. Marc Quinn’s Siren (Kate Moss) – a stunning life-size sculpture made of solid 18-karat gold and depicting the fashion model in an anatomically impossible yoga pose, on view in the US for the first time – grouped with work Nam June Paik. 2005 Golden Buddha video installation in the Old Gold galleries. And some vintage Cartier cigarette cases space with 6th CE century earrings in the Gold Fashioning space. In the Crowned section, a wooden portrait of an Egyptian mummy circa 120 to 130 CE sits next to photographer Barron Claiborne’s iconic 1997 “King of New York” portrait of rapper Notorious BIG wearing a $6 plastic crown.
“I really tried to make each section its own unique experience,” says Yokobosky, the museum’s senior curator of fashion culture and content. “I wanted it to be like a movie, where you kind of have a scene and then you go to another scene. And like a movie, you’re trying to create those relationships.”
“Solid Gold” includes a surfeit of rarely seen pieces from the museum’s archives, including a large sarcophagus lid from Dynasty 22 (945 to 740 BCE), not on display for over a century and the Lunar baby grand piano Restored, restored and on public view for the first time since it was created by photographer and painter Edward Steichen in 1928. It is one of two pianos known to exist designed by Steichen, which featured in his portraits of luminaries with including George Gershwin.
Constructed of inlaid mahogany with gilt bands and mirrored tesserae, it has been painstakingly restored by the museum’s conservation team. There are also more than 180 pieces of gold from the Hellenistic period, as well as ancient jewelry and chain mail spanning three millennia across Egypt, the Mediterranean coast, and pre-Hispanic America.
Yokobosky used contemporary fashion and jewelry as a unifying touchstone for “Solid Gold.”
“When I started working on the show, I made a list of all the designers who have done beautiful gold work,” he says. “And then I started building tables of different groups of works that speak to each other and had a sympathetic aesthetic.”
The exhibition features the work of Mary McFadden, and David and Phillippe (including shoes designed by The Blonds with Christian Louboutin).
“I was very interested in looking at different techniques used in gold,” says Yokobosky. “For example, Mary McFadden did a collection where the chiffon was painted with gold paint.”
French designer Marc Bohan of Dior has many dresses made of silk thread and steel, including the gold lamé Grecian dress worn by Lauren Hutton in director Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s 1982 feature film “All Fired Up.” There is also Tina Turner’s gold bustier dress by Azedine Alaïa for her in 1989, jewelry designer Gabby Elan’s gold tooth and diamond grills, a series of gold-embellished coats from Anna Sui, Italian-born American designer Giorgio di Saint’Angelo in 1969 .Klimt dress from the private couture collection of editor Hamish Bowles, two 1930s gold-plated metal purses from Elsa Schiaparelli’s polyurethane and leather gowns created by Italian designer Gianfranco Ferré, a dramatic golden ballroom dress made of crinkled gold metallic polyester from the spring 2020 designer Balenciaga Demna haute couture collection, and Chiuri 2018 J’Adore dress worn by Charlize Theron; made from 100 percent polyamide and hand-embroidered with thousands of sequins.
“There have been various studies on how museum goers don’t read all the labels and didactic panels. And while those panels have a lot of information that could help them experience the work, people are selective about what they want to read. I think part of the curation and design of the show is to create opportunities for a visual learning experience,” says Yokobosky.
“I think people come to museums because they want to have that non-verbal experience. I was really thinking about the lighting and soundtrack that helps connect and bridge the different scenes. I’ve been working with the sound designer to create what I like to call a sound net, which also helps us knit the scenes together. I’m really trying to create an experience for people that is a visual experience and a learning opportunity.”
Gallery Launch: A Look at the Solid Gold Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum
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