The Metropolitan Museum of Art has released a catalog for its upcoming 'Costume Art' exhibition, reframing fashion alongside paintings and sculptures. Curator Andrew Bolton commissioned paper assemblages from artist Julie Wolfe to highlight connections between art and clothing. The catalog features side-by-side images of artworks and dressed mannequins.
The 'Costume Art' exhibition at The Met explores clothing in relation to the museum's art collection, using the 'dressed body' as a central theme. Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge, writes that his goal is 'reframing fashion as a primary site of visual and social formation,' placing it on equal footing with traditional artworks. The exhibition is structured around various body types, including the naked and nude body, the pregnant body, and the aging body. Designer Anna Rieger worked with photographers Paul Westlake and Anna-Marie Kellen to photograph artworks and mannequins against gray backgrounds, emphasizing their symbiotic links through cropping and positioning. Side-by-side images in the catalog underscore these pairings. Bolton commissioned paper assemblages from Julie Wolfe, in collaboration with photographer Nathalie Agussol, to introduce the body types. Wolfe described the approach as '1+1=3,' creating 'a separate sort of hybrid entity' from art and fashion. 'I think this is brilliant of Andrew, because it sort of gives a different perspective on the pairings that are in the exhibition,' Wolfe said. She aims for viewers to 'see from their own perspective how they want to put the puzzle together.' Wolfe crafted the pieces using Exacto knives, scissors, and archival adhesives on materials like vintage book pages, embracing imperfections. 'I wanted to make these pieces very much analog in themselves, very much like a human touch, not perfect. There are cut marks and there are some irregularities and I love that sort of beauty,' she explained. In addition to the catalog, published with Yale University Press, The Met offers 'The Body Electric,' a limited-edition keepsake box of 500 numbered copies. It includes a signed print by Wolfe and unbound pages for readers to create their own art-fashion connections.
