| Exhibition Dates: |
March 6–November 26, 2017
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| Exhibition Location: |
The Met Fifth Avenue, Floor 1
Deedee Wigmore Galleries, Gallery 743
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The meticulously organized, modest closet in which Sara Berman (1920–2004)—an immigrant who traveled from Belarus to Palestine to New York—kept her all-white apparel and accessories both contained her life and revealed it. The artists Maira and Alex Kalman (who are also Berman’s daughter and grandson) have recreated the closet and its contents as an art installation. Opening March 6 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the exhibition
Sara Berman’s Closet represents Berman’s life from 1982 to 2004, when she lived by herself in a small apartment in Greenwich Village. With its neatly arranged stacks of starched and precisely folded clothing, the closet will be presented as a small period room in dialogue with The Met’s recently installed Worsham-Rockefeller Dressing Room from 1882, which will feature clothing from the 1880s of the type that Arabella Worsham, a wealthy art patroness, might have worn. Despite vast differences of scale and ornament, and the separation of 100 years, the two rooms show there were similarities between the life stories of Sara Berman and Arabella Worsham (c. 1851–1924). Both began as women of limited means who, by their own ingenuity, created new lives for themselves in New York City.
The exhibition is made possible by the Frank and Eva Buck Foundation.
Born in Belarus and married in Tel Aviv, Sara Berman eventually settled in the Bronx, where she raised her family. After she left her husband, her money, and her possessions, Berman moved into a small studio apartment in Greenwich Village. There, in a modest closet, she lovingly organized her undergarments, nightgowns, shirts, pants, shoes, sweaters, hats, linens, beauty products, luggage, and other necessities. Although the clothing is of various tints—including cream, ivory, and ecru—it gives the impression of being all white. Inspired by the beauty and meaning of Berman’s closet, her daughter and grandson, both artists, have created the installation as a tribute and memorial.
The Met’s collection of historic American interiors tells a history of architecture, design, and people over three centuries. In addition to providing insight into the life of Sara Berman, the exhibition will also tell the important American story of immigration and acculturation.
Related Programs
Education programs include a conversation on March 22 between curator Amelia Peck and Berman’s daughter and grandson, artists Maira and Alex Kalman. Tickets start at $40.
Credits
The installation at The Met was organized by Amelia Peck, the Marica F. Vilcek Curator of American Decorative Arts and Manager of The Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art, in collaboration with Alex Kalman. Exhibition design is by Zoe Florence, Exhibition Designer; graphics are by Chelsea Amato, Graphic Designer; and lighting is by The Met Lighting Design Team, all of the Museum’s Design Department.
The exhibition will be featured on The Met
website, as well as on
Facebook,
Instagram, and
Twitter.
The exhibition was originally organized and exhibited at Mmuseumm in New York City in 2015.
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Updated August 25, 2017
Image: Maira Kalman and Alex Kalman. Items from
Sara Berman’s Closet, 2015. Textiles, leather, paper, glass, metal, plastic. Property of the artists. Photo credit: Katherine Finkelstein
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