Exhibition Open until Midnight on September 4 and 5
(New York, August 28, 2015) – The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced extended hours for the final weekend of its extraordinarily popular Costume Institute exhibition China: Through the Looking Glass. On Friday, September 4, and Saturday, September 5, the exhibition will remain open to the public for three additional hours, closing at midnight. The Museum normally closes at 9:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday evenings. The exhibition closes on Labor Day, Monday, September 7.
The Museum’s Great Hall Balcony Bar, adjacent to the exhibition’s final gallery, will be open with appetizers and full bar service until midnight. The Met Store’s exhibition shop for China will also be open, and features a range of products inspired by the exhibition, including the exhibition catalogue and an exclusive collection of fashion accessories, jewelry, and stationery. The China: Through the Looking Glass galleries are the only galleries open to the public during the extended hours.
The exhibition, which opened on May 7, has already been extended by three weeks–from August 16 to September 7–and has so far drawn more than 730,000 visitors, surpassing the record-breaking Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2011) to become The Costume Institute’s highest attended exhibition ever. The McQueen exhibition, which was the Met’s eighth most popular show, had a total of 661,509 visitors.
Encompassing approximately 30,000 square feet in 16 separate galleries in the Museum’s Chinese and Egyptian Galleries and Anna Wintour Costume Center, it is The Costume Institute’s largest special exhibition ever, and also one of the Museum’s largest. With gallery space three times the size of a typical Costume Institute major spring exhibition, China has accommodated large numbers of visitors without lines.
The exhibition explores the impact of Chinese aesthetics on Western fashion and how China has fueled the fashionable imagination for centuries. High fashion is juxtaposed with Chinese costumes, paintings, porcelains, and other art, including films, to reveal enchanting reflections of Chinese imagery.
The exhibition, curated by Andrew Bolton, is a collaboration between The Costume Institute and the Department of Asian Art. Wong Kar Wai is artistic director and Nathan Crowley served as production designer.
The exhibition is made possible by Yahoo.
Additional support is provided by Condé Nast and several Chinese donors.
Tickets are available at the Met, as well as in advance on the Museum’s website, and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter using #ChinaLookingGlass and #AsianArt100. It is also on Weibo using @大都会博物馆MET_中国艺术
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August 28, 2015
Image: Evening dress, Roberto Cavalli (Italian, born 1940), fall/winter 2005-6, Photography © Platon
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