~ALEXANDER McQUEEN/SAVAGE BEAUTY
ok. already. artlovers is coming back to life.
what ?
didn’t you know – a dead artist apparently – is the best artist.
not that playing dead got me anywhere – but hey a person can dream, can’t they ?
and, yes the NYC summer belongs to a dead artist – ALEXANDER McQUEEN !!
whose SAVAGE BEAUTY on display at the MET – is racking up the crowds, and you know the locals don’t stand in line for naught. get there early. there’s already a 45 minute wait by 10:30.
the production is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. the backdrops intense, the music severely disco spooky, and absolutely apt.
the only thing that beats the choice of brief quotes – straight from the maestro’s heart – “I live between life and death” – are the clothes themselves.
which are almost unbearably sublime and dynamic. from the chic chic severe tailoring of his graduate student days thru the RAPE OF .. Scotland McQueen tartan pieces, to the riffs off Japanese kimonos. it’s all there. with a couple of magical holograms thrown in for good measure . . . just in time to join those other out-of-this world forces, for sure . . . of that other big summer hit – the Harry Potter last hurrah, and good-bye world, too.
those Brits. what a strange race, so up-tight and so-knock down magical – all at the same time. hey that’s the motherland for ya.
they also have some great runway clips. my fave ?
the huge skirt – spray painted on the spot – by robotic arms. yes !! oh yes !!
DRESS, THE HORN OF PLENTY, AUTUMN/WINTER 2009-10
Alexander McQueen, British, 1969-2010.
Black duck feathers.
COURTESY OF ALEXANDER McQUEEN
Photograph copyright Solve Sundsbo / Art + Commerce
Postcard copyright 2011 by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
the show, which was supposed to end July 31, 2011 – has been extended thru AUGUST 7, 2011.
see: ALEXANDER McQUEEN/SAVAGE BEAUTY/the MET
the MET also put out a wonderful hard cover book to accompany the exhibit. well worth the $45.
just the cover alone – is worth the price tag.
a super dramatic hologram that starts out like a devil – and ends up a hard-faced Scot – McQueen himself.
now that’s what I call: ghostly.
the only cover that I can think of that comes close – would be one of those MORIKO MORI prism-like ones from the last decade, or so.
PHOTOS OF: ALEXANDER McQUEEN ‘SAVAGE BEAUTY’ hard cover exhibit book – by NANCY SMITH