I woke up this morning and knew I had to go to the Met to see’ Savage Beauty’, the Alexander McQueen exhibit before it ended on Sunday. I’ve been avoiding the trek to Grand Central on metro north and then the number 6 train up to 86th and Lex. only because of the heat of the last few weeks. But faced with missing the exhibit, one of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s most visited shows in history, made the suffocating heat a minor inconvenience—I caught the 9:37 to the city, then the number 6 up to 86th street. When I made a left onto Fifth Avenue, I could see the steps of the Met already packed with people sitting, standing and lining up to get in. I made a mental note to myself not to arrive so late ever again. It was about 10:45.
After the security check, I went straight to the information desk in the center of the lobby to get directions. The sign on the desk said “McQueen exhibit line closed” so I said, “excuse me, what does that mean?” “It means”, the woman behind the desk replied, “you can’t get on the line to view the exhibit until it opens again, and that probably will not be for several hours.” OMG I thought and said, “what about members?”. I knew from all the membership marketing signs hanging in every corner and on every wall in the gigantic lobby that ‘MEMBERS SKIP THE LINES’, but I needed it confirmed. Miss blond, 55-ish facelift leaned closer to me and said, “no one gets in while the line is closed”. I smiled and thanked her, moved around to the other side of the huge circular desk and asked someone else the same question. Same answer. I didn’t believe them for a minute.
So I figured I’d join the museum anyway, since I plan to go a lot this fall and winter, now that I’m retired, and made my way to the far right to the Membership desk. There was a line, as I guessed others had the same idea as me, join and “skip the line”. I joined and got my temporary membership card. I asked the friendlier-looking worker if I could now, indeed, “skip the line” and she repeated: no one, even members, cannot get into the exhibit if the line is closed. She also suggested that I return on Saturday or Sunday morning at 8:30 am, when only members are allowed in for an hour. “Your chances are better then.” I said “good idea”.
I made my way up the wide, sprawling, center staircase to the second floor and was immediately confronted with people on line, a line I knew I could identify as the line I wanted to skip. I followed it winding through what seemed like every gallery on the second floor, crossing halls and roped off on one side, so other museum goers like me could walk freely. I reached a point where I couldn’t walk alongside the line any longer, and asked the guard keeping me from going any further if members could continue on and get in. She said, no, no one was entering the exhibit now, but why don’t I just go up to the front of the line to see where the exhibit is, so that later I can “skip the line” when it opened up again. So I did.
After many more halls and galleries, THERE IT WAS!! SAVAGE BEAUTY – I heard music, I saw flashing and swirling lights and people standing, sitting on the floor and generally looking tired and impatient waiting behind the rope in the hall. I had been walking through the museum for at least 20 minutes, passing signs reading “2 hour wait from this point” and “1 hour wait from this point” and “line closed indefinitely”. I walked up to the guard at the entrance, smiled, held up my membership card, and asked again, “Can members enter”? He looked at me, unhooked the rope and said, “go right in”. Best $70 I ever spent!
Savage Beauty was stunning, magical, disturbing, enchanting, electrifying, it was everything I never imagined and more. I didn’t know much about the designer Lee Alexander McQueen before this exhibit but now I feel I have a tiny inkling into his psyche, or maybe none at all. It is hard to tell. He said himself, “There is no way back for me now. I am going to take you on journeys you’ve never dreamed were possible.” The exhibit is multi-media including holograms, videos, and tricks to startle the gapers. His designs were romantic, regal, futuristic yet historically influenced, sometimes conjuring madness, at others, softness and beauty. Oh, yes, and then there was the sort of erotic and S&M leather, thorns and chains. But always, always original stretching the imagination to places I can’t say I’ve ever been. Primitive yet enlightened, romantic/gothic (his words) yet avant-garde. Dresses, gowns were made of lace, silk chiffon and tapestry, then birds’ feathers, clam and mussel shells, and flowers. And then there are the shoes…… the accessories…..
The limitations of my ability to adequately describe this exhibit are so much greater than my infinite desire to share it with readers of this blog. I can point you to the Met web site where you can view videos of the exhibit, but more intriguing, his runway shows – elaborate presentations of his original concept for every collection. Take a look if I have spiked your interest, and go to the Met if you can before Sunday, August 7 – but go as a member so you can skip the line!
If you don’t already know, sadly, Lee McQueen died by suicide in February of 2010. His mother had also died by suicide a week before. He admitted to be distraught and unable to handle her death.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.
-- Jules de Gaultier
No comments:
Post a Comment