The exposition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is reminiscent of William Hogarth’s concept of beauty, which the designer liked.
All channels in Telegram are bursting with photos of celebrities who came to the Met Gala. And we will show an exhibition, at the opening of which all these smart people came! This year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York opened the exhibition “Karl Lagerfeld: the line of beauty” (May 5 – July 16, 2023). The legendary designer has worked since the 1950s, collaborating with the brands Patou, Chloé, Fendi and Chanel (he joined the latter in 1983 and became almost synonymous with it), so the curators had something to show.
Exhibition Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The exhibition was designed by Tadao Ando. The Pritzker Prize winner met the fashion designer in 1996 when the late designer commissioned him to set up a design studio in Biarritz.
Exhibition Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The exhibition is based on the work of the artist and art theorist William Hogarth “Analysis of Beauty”, which reveals the theory of the “line of beauty”. This is the “serpentine line”, that is, the S-shaped curve that exists inside the work of art and makes it alive and moving. Lagerfeld drew much of his inspiration from this idea. And the architecture of the exhibition echoes this concept: the galleries are built in the form of the aforementioned S-shaped line, symbolizing the designer’s dynamism and fantasy, and a straight line, reminiscent of minimalism in his works.
Exhibition Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
“[The designer’s] flowing lines of sketches were repeated in his collections,” said Andrew Bolton, chief curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, Andrew Bolton. He made the central theme of the exhibition the contradictions that Lagerfeld loved: female and male, romance and military uniform, rococo and classic, historical and futuristic outfits. In the center of the exposition is the Blanche table with reproductions of Lagerfeld’s sketches, his books and favorite art supplies.
Exhibition Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The project includes more than 200 archival materials: original sketches, outfits, video interviews with seamstresses (premières d’atelier, with whom Lagerfeld collaborated), as well as an installation that recreates his desktop. The exhibition highlights how the designer influenced and was inspired by a wide range of cultural areas such as art, film, music and literature. Lagerfeld changed the idea of what a designer should be: instead of being committed to one discipline, he created the image of a multifaceted creative polymath.
Exhibition Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Exhibition Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Exhibition Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art