Savage Beauty at the Metropolitan Museum

July 6, 2011 by Patricia Spears...

"Savage Beauty" may be one of the best contemporary art installations I have ever seen--and folks I've seen plenty during my 3 decades in NYC and am amazed that it was done at the Metropolitan Museum--great to see the Met take some risk--no statements keeping children out, etc.  

Alexander McQueen's artistry is well-served by the installation design--color, wall paper, videos, even the cabinetry; sound design, and those extraordinary clothes-the tailoring, fabrics--their textures. Moreover, McQueen brought out the brilliance, strangeness and magic of his collaborators. The masks by Guido Palau are particularly important to the exhibition's success. Wow. The show is not about fashion. It is about women's sexuality played out in strange, erotic, enraging and startling ways through clothes that bind, wrap, billow and blow. He said "I am not big on women being naive." There is no innocence or pretense, but an exploration of how to use women's bodies to contemplate a range of issues from the colonization of Scotland to evolution. I salute all the models who wore those clothes--fashion as extreme theater, not so much absurd, but truly, deeply importantly mad. While the selected music for the exhibition  was terrific--I kept hearing "Werewolves of London" and an Art Ensemble song about Paris in my head. I know many of you have seen this show, but if you've been fence sitting, all I have to say to you is GO and take your time.