Jeff Bezos Sponsors Major Exhibition at the Met

Never before has Jeff Bezos so clearly sponsored a major exhibition. Announced on Monday, November 17, the “Costume Art” exhibition at the Met will have the billionaire and his wife Lauren Sánchez Bezos as its main donors. The amount of the donation has not been disclosed.

The exhibition will pair approximately 200 garments and accessories with 200 works of art spanning the period from antiquity to modern art, exploring the dialogue and mutual influences between the body, costume, and art. The exhibition, designed by Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute, will be structured into typologies: “the naked body,” “the classical body,” “the pregnant body,” and “the mortal body.”

“Rather than focusing on the visual aspect of fashion, which is often at the expense of the physical aspect, ‘Costume Art’ emphasizes its materiality and the inextricable link between our bodies and the clothes we wear,” Bolton said in the press release.

Other supporters of the exhibition are also known, including luxury brands such as Saint Laurent, Thom Browne, and Michael Kors. But another new feature adds to the appeal of this exhibition: the inauguration of more than 1,100 square meters of exhibition space sponsored by Conde Nast Media and named Condé M. Nast Galleries, in tribute to the founder of Condé Nast. The Condé M. Nast galleries were designed by Miriam Peterson and Nathan Rich of the Brooklyn-based architecture firm Peterson Rich Office, under the direction of Beyer Blinder Belle Architects.

They are expected to include new dining and retail spaces, according to The Art Newspaper. It is interesting to note how fashion is becoming increasingly integrated into museum discourse, and how a media conglomerate is imposing its brand on a cultural institution and transforming itself into an actor rather than a vehicle for information.

While Jeff Bezos' support for an exhibition is a first for him, he has already supported several major institutions in the United States, including a $200 million donation to the Smithsonian Institution, used in particular for the renovation of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., and for the creation of a “Bezos Learning Center.” He also financed the creation of the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI, Seattle) through a significant donation to its Center for Innovation.