“To be Gorgeous, strictly speaking, is something in itself. To be Gorgeous therefore is admirable, to be Absolutely Gorgeous most desired.” So begins an essay in one of the many zines in the Brooklyn Museum’s Jimmy DeSana: Submission exhibition, which is joined by the museum’s concurrent Thierry Mugler: Couturissime show in advocating for skin-deep/skin-tight beauty. … Continue reading
The Brooklyn Museum’s latest offering Studio 54: Night Magic, curated and designed by Matthew Yokobosky, Senior Curator of Fashion and Material Culture, could, for some discerning spectators, be alternately called Studio 54: Lite. The curatorial focus is, of course, on fashion and design, so adjust your expectations as such. It’s about meticulous attention to lavish … Continue reading
“I can’t give everything away,” were some of the final words heard from David Bowie on this planet on the final track of his last album Blackstar. And true to form, he really didn’t–remaining the man who fell to Earth as much as a mere man since his first inhabitation of the Bowie name until … Continue reading
“The time has come to think about sex,” announces Gayle Rubin in the introduction to her seminal essay “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality” (143). Written in 1984–the year of Reagan’s reelection, Rubin’s pro-sex polemic came as a response to not only Reagan’s AIDS-denying conservatism, but also the pearl clutching, … Continue reading
Last weekend, the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art and the International Collage Center hosted a panel, “Fashioning Personnae: Collage, Gender and Feminism,” bringing together an inspirational group of artists to question the nature of collage as it relates to gender, identity and the self. Continue reading