Dear Shaded Viewers,
Once again the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is the first to give a retrospective to an iconic Parisian designer. First of course was Jean Paul Gaultier. This time MMFA collaborating with the House of Mugler and Clarins Group shine a light on Mugler in an exhibition conceived as an opera in six acts.
Thierry Mugler: Couturissime features some 150 outfits – most restored and exhibited for the first time – produced between 1977 and 2014, in addition to accessories, theatre costumes, videos, film clips, videos, archives and unpublished sketches. It also presents a hundred rare prints by the greatest fashion photographers and artists, including Lillian Bassman, Guy Bourdin, Jean-Paul Goude, Karl Lagerfeld, Paolo Roversi, Dominique Issermann, David LaChapelle, Luigi & Iango, Alix Malka, Max Abadian, Steven Meisel, Mert & Marcus, Sarah Moon, Pierre et Gilles, Paolo Roversi, Herb Ritts, and Ellen von Unwerth. An entire gallery is dedicated to the collaboration between the couturier and photographer Helmut Newton. The exhibition also features a rotation of 16 of the costumes designed by Mugler for La Tragédie de Macbeth, shown here for the first time since the 1985 Comédie-Française production at the Festival d’Avignon.
“I have often been offered to exhibit my work, but the idea of looking backward has never interested me. Although the MMFA with Nathalie Bondil and Thierry-Maxime Loriot were the right people, with the right vision. There is no future without a past, so I hope this exhibition will open up a new and inspiring creative future for the audience! ”
Manfred Thierry Mugler
Nathalie Bondil, MMFA Director General and Chief Curator, explains: “Paying homage to couturiers is a source of pride for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. I am proud to be able to share the masterful creations of Thierry Mugler. His sleek, elegant creatures, his dangerous seductresses, populate a world of glamour at the edges of reality. Subjects, rather than objects, of their sexuality, these women possess devastating humour and irresistible power. It is a privilege to unveil as a world premiere in Montreal – before they embark on an international tour – these fragile, preserved outfits, usual ly inaccessible to the public. »
Curatorial Credits
The exhibition was curated by Thierry-Maxime Loriot under the direction of Nathalie Bondil, Director General and Chief Curator of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Exhibition Layout
The exhibition layout was overseen by Sandra Gagné, head of Exhibition Production at the MMFA. athon Kong, Marie-Ève Lecavalier, MARKANTOINE and Marie Saint Pierre.
Publication
Thierry Mugler: Couturissime
The perfect companion to the eponymous exhibition, Thierry Mugler: Couturissime is the first monograph dedicated to fashion designer Thierry Mugler. The result of extensive research, this book edited by Thierry-Maxime Loriot, contains essays by Jeanne Beker, Nathalie Bondil, Marie Colmant, Matthias Harder, Jack Lang, Amelie Nothomb, Lou Stoppard, Stefano Tonchi and Shelly Verthime. It includes more 350 archival images and previously unpublished photographs by the biggest names in fashion photography, in addition to photographs by Mugler himself. A co-edition of The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Publishing Department and Phaidon. Graphic design: Paprika, Montreal.
