Diller Scofidio + Renfro to Design Exhibition on "Fashion and the Catholic Imagination" for the Met

Written by Patrick Lynch
Published on November 08, 2017

Update 11/9/17: We've added a gallery of items from the show to the post!

Diller Scofidio + Renfro have been selected to collaborate with The Costume Institute on a new exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art focused on the relationship between fashion, religious art and the devotional practices and traditions of Catholicism.

Titled “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” the exhibition will feature fashion and religious artworks from the Met’s collection, as well as more than 50 objects and garments from the Sistine Chapel sacristy, many of which have never been seen before outside of The Vatican.

Evening Dress, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli for Valentino, spring/summer 2014 haute couture; Courtesy of Valentino S.p.A. Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Digital Composite Scan by Katerina Jebb

Bible and Book of Common Prayer, British, ca. 1607, silk and metal; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Irwin Untemeyer, 1964 (64.101.1291) Image © Metropolitan Museum of Art

"The Catholic imagination is rooted in and sustained by artistic practice, and fashion's embrace of sacred images, objects, and customs continues the ever-evolving relationship between art and religion," said Daniel H. Weiss, President and CEO of The Met. "The Museum's collection of religious art, in combination with the architecture of the medieval galleries and The Cloisters, provides the perfect context for these remarkable fashions."

"Fashion and religion have long been intertwined, mutually inspiring and informing one another," said Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute. "Although this relationship has been complex and sometimes contested, it has produced some of the most inventive and innovative creations in the history of fashion."

Evening Dress, Gianni Versace for House of Versace, autumn/winter 1997–98; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Donatella Versace, 1999 (1999.137.1) Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Digital Composite Scan by Katerina Jebb

Reliquary cross, Italian, 14th–century, enamel, silver-gilt, coral, glass, rock-crystal, gold leaf; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of J. Pierpoint Morgan, 1917 (17.190.497) Image © Metropolitan Museum of Art

The exhibition will be held across several Met spaces, including the Anna Wintour Costume Center and the Medieval and Byzantine galleries in their main 5th avenue building, and their uptown Manhattan location, The Met Cloisters. The papal vestments and accessories will represent the largest collection loaned by the Vatican since 1983 for the Met’s 3rd most-visited show of all time, The Vatican Collections.

The exhibition will be the second collaboration between DS+R and the Costume Institute, following their design for "Charles James: Beyond Fashion," the inaugural exhibition at the newly renovated Anna Wintour Costume Institute.

See here for more information.