Displaying items by tag: china: through the looking glass

Harold Koda, who has been curator in charge of The Costume Institute since 2000, is retiring, announced The Metropolitan Museum of Art late on September 8.

The announcement comes off the back of the Met’s successful run of China: Through the Looking Glass, which attracted 815,992 visitors between May 7 and September 7, officially pipping Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2011) to the title of The Costume Institute’s most popular exhibition.

As “China: Through the Looking Glass” comes to the end of its run, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will stay open until midnight, the New York Times reports.

The museum will be open three hours later than usual on September 4 and 5 to accommodate the steady stream of visitors to this summer’s Costume Institute show, which has already drawn more than 730,000 visitors and stands as one of the Met’s most popular shows of all time. (For comparison, the previous record-holder, the Met’s 2011 Alexander McQueen retrospective, was seen by 661, 509 people.)

A New York exhibition exploring Chinese influence on Western fashion has become a summer smash-hit, attracting a record 670,000 visitors in a sign of China's growing clout in America.

Spread across 16 galleries, "China: Through the Looking Glass," is the most visited show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute and has been extended for three weeks.

It broke the previous record set by a 2011 show celebrating the late British designer Alexander McQueen, which went on display shortly after his tragic death, the museum said.

The Costume Institute is housed within the Metropolitan Museum of Art but exists in a separate universe, one with its own galleries, budget, press representative and aesthetic protocols. To some this fashion-world apart is a Martian oddity, to others it is a vital preserve of Venusian luxe. Either way — and for better and worse — it has never been as fully integrated with the Met as it is in the exhibition that opened this week called “China: Through the Looking Glass.”

Designed to illustrate the influence of Chinese culture on Western fashion, the show is spread over three floors.

Asian art is gloriously basking in the sun this year. While 42 extraordinary galleries from around the globe open their doors with one-of-a-kind exhibitions during Asia Week New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is celebrating the centennial of its world-renowned Department of Asian Art. Even Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour jumped on the bandwagon as she recently visited Beijing to promote the Met Costume Institute’s upcoming exhibition "China: Through the Looking Glass."

Works of art from all over the Asian continent and spanning over four millennia will be shown throughout Manhattan by international Asian art specialists during Asia Week New York, starting March 13 to March 21, 2015.  Art lovers can take in museum-caliber treasures including the rarest and finest Asian examples of painting, sculpture, bronzes, ceramics, jewelry, jade, textiles, prints, and photographs from all over Asia.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted a press presentation on Monday, February 16, 2015, in the Museum’s Chinese Galleries to reveal early details about The Costume Institute’s upcoming exhibition "China: Through the Looking Glass," opening on May 7.

Silas Chou, Wendi Murdoch, Anna Wintour, Wong Kar Wai, and Joe Zee joined Museum President Emily K. Rafferty, Costume Institute Curator Andrew Bolton, and Douglas Dillon Chairman of the Department of Asian Art Maxwell K. Hearn in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery for a glimpse at some of the Chinese art and film, as well as high fashion, to be featured in the exhibition, on view May 7–August 16, 2015, at the Met in New York City.

Combining fashion and film, the spring exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute will be "China: Through the Looking Glass," the museum said Thursday during a preview in Beijing.

The show will run from May 7 to Aug. 16 in the Met's Chinese Galleries and in the Anna Wintour Costume Center. It will feature more than 130 fashions juxtaposed with traditional Chinese art pieces in jade, lacquer and porcelain.