de Young Museum

In conjunction with Charles Sheeler: Across Media

In conjunction with Vivienne Westwood: 36 Years in Fashion

In the late 1980s Vivienne Westwood reintroduced the corset, transforming it from restrictive underwear into fashionable outerwear. Her revival of the corset may be her most important contribution to late-20th-century fashion. This exhibition chronicles the evolution of the corset through a selection of six historical corsets from the museum’s permanent collection, along with print selections from the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts.

In her recent work, Deborah Oropallo (b. 1954) deconstructs and enhances images to investigate the seduction and power that is evoked by gesture and pose. Oropallo layers images of contemporary women in provocative costumes, borrowed from the Internet, with images of men from 17th- and 18th-century portrait paintings, including several from the collection of the Fine Arts Museums. These traditional portraits were often contrived to convey not merely a likeness of the sitter, but also a sense of his importance and authority.

Enrico Donati (b. 1909) is perhaps the last living Surrealist artist closely associated with the movement’s acknowledged leader, André Breton. He was a key figure in the community of European expatriate artists in World War II–era New York. This exhibition recreates the extraordinary assemblage of objects in the artist’s New York studio.