Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Museum of Fine Arts-WALK THIS WAY...Thursday, September 27, 2007 - Sunday, March 23, 2008


This recent installment of footwear throughout the MFA has been a big hit. There has been special maps made for visitors to tour around the MFA to find each shoe from Daisuke's sneaker, Marilyn Monroe's high heels, to old roman sandals. The shoes range from the ornate, practical, toy to exquisite to the dizzying heights of the outrageous Venetian pianelles!
I enjoyed this exhibit while at the MFA recently as it got me to wander around a bit more than usual. Currently the MFA is undergoing alot of changes and renovations to be even better, bigger than ever over the next few years.

(from MFA website): Walk This Way:

While shoes serve a practical function by protecting our soles from the elements and hazards underfoot, they have also become highly ornamented objects of obsession. Whatever the materials or the cost, however, shoes always reflect the time and place in which they were made and worn and the culture that produced them. "Walk This Way," unlike any footwear exhibition in the past, places shoes—from ancient Egyptian and Nubian sandals to new acquisitions representing the best in contemporary design—throughout the MFA's galleries to illustrate their relationship to other works of art. These provocative juxtapositions provide insights into the history, ornamentation, and cultural importance of footwear. In this treasure hunt of an exhibition, visitors might find a pair of Venetian chopines next to a painting of the city by Canaletto, a woman's shoe from the late 1790s embroidered with neoclassical scrolling grape vines exhibited with an ancient statue of the Greek god Dionysus, or a pair of contemporary wedges with rococo carved heels from MIU MIU's most recent collection alongside eighteenth-century carved and gilt furniture.

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