Happening This Weekend… Friday, January 24 – Sunday, January 26
MCNY’s Tiffany & Co. Foundation Gallery, “Gilded New York” Exhibition
Gilded New York Weekend: Manners, Etiquette, Fashion, the Lavish Lifestyle of the City’s Original Gilded Age. Museum of the City of New York. FREE
- · GALLERY TOURS WITH CURATORS Go on a gallery tour and meet the curators behind Gilded New York, the Museum’s newest exhibition, which showcases the Gilded Age’s visual culture through lavish costumes, jewelry, portraits, and decorative objects. Curator of Costumes & Textiles Phyllis Magidson will lead 40-minute tours at 11:00 AM and 12:00 PM on Friday, January 24. Curator Jeannine Falino will lead hour-long tours on Saturday, January 25 at 1:00 PM and 2:15 PM. Museum docents will lead hour-long tours on Friday, January 24 and Sunday, January 25 at 2:00 PM.
- · GILDED MANNERS: HOW TO LAY A HIGH SOCIETY TABLE on Friday, January 24 at 1:00 PM and 2:30 PM. During the Gilded Age, affluent New Yorkers threw lavish and dignified dinner parties. Culinary historian Cathy Kaufman will explore this dining culture with a special etiquette demonstration that will show you how to set a high society table with the traditional flatware and serving ware—everything from finger bowls to fish forks. The event is co-sponsored by the Culinary Historians of New York. Free with admission.
- · GIFTS FROM THE GILDED AGE Check out the Museum Shop for jewelry, apparel, and accessories made in New York. Sign up for the Museum’s email newsletter, and you’ll receive 10% off all store purchases, including the exhibition catalogue, Gilded New York: Design, Fashion, and Society, a beautiful hardcover volume priced at $50.
About Gilded New York
On view from November 13, 2013 to November 30, 2014, Gilded New York is the inaugural exhibition in the Museum’s Tiffany & Co. Foundation Gallery, and explores the city’s visual culture at the end of the 19th century. In New York, this era was marked by the sudden rise of industrial and corporate wealth, amassed by such titans as Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould, who expressed their high status through extravagant fashions, architecture, and interior design. The exhibition presents a lavish display of some 100 works, including costumes, jewelry, portraits, and decorative objects, all created between the mid-1870s and the early 20th century. The dazzling works in the exhibition illuminate an era when members of the new American aristocracy flaunted their wealth in storied balls in Fifth Avenue mansions and hotels. It was a time when New York became the nation’s corporate headquarters and a popular Ladies’ Mile of luxury retail establishments and cultural institutions helped launch the city to global prominence.
To register for the tours:http://www.mcny.org/event/
Mara Superior, “Alfresco” 2011, porcelain, gold leaf, 10 x 20 x 2.5″.
New York Ceramics Fair, January 22 through January 26, Wed – Saturday 11 – 7 and Sun 11 – 4. The Grand Ballroom, Bohemian National Hall, 321 East 73rd Street (between 1st & 2nd Aves)
A highlight of the fair Bacchanalistas: Passions + Pleasure spotlights the seductive side of historic and modern ceramics and glass objects. Curated by Leslie Ferrin, principle of Ferrin Contemporary, selected pieces from dealers at the fair will be shown along side work by contemporary artists.
The New York Ceramics Fair features ceramics and glass from the early 19th Century to Present.
A person interested in architecture, portraits, porcelain and jewellery from the era must visit the Gilded Age tours and I would in a heart beat. As you say, this was the new American aristocracy flaunting its wealth, and its taste.
But here is a interesting thought. During the Gilded Age, were the aristocratic few aware of the vast, struggling working classes and the less struggling middle classes? Did they ever venture out of their suburbs of gorgeous homes into older, more crowded parts of the city.