Fans of the fashion and style of Vogue Magazine take note: one of the best museums in Mexico City, Museo Franz Mayer, is hosting an exhibition called “Vogue Like a Painting” through September 15, 2019. This eye-catching exhibit features more than 60 large-format images from the photographic archive of Vogue Magazine.
Work by Horst P. Horst, Edward Steichen, Erwin Blumerfeld, Cecil Beaton and Annie Liebowitz are included in the gallery, with fashion, design and artistic trends represented from various decades of the 20th and 21st centuries. Most of the works had previously toured at the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum in Madrid and the Kunstforeningen GL Strand gallery in Copenhagen, but the Mexico City edition includes two new photographs: a portrait of Yalitza Aparicio, the Mexican actress who starred in the award-winning movie Roma, and a photograph of the model Romee Strijd by Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf. The portrait of Romee Strijd had been censored in previous exhibitions because it depicts what appears to be an interpretation of the madonna breastfeeding a baby.
The exhibit is divided into five sections: Portrait, Natural Death, Rococo, Landscapes and Modern Art. A select number of haute couture clothing is also featured as a complement to the framed works.
For the VIP experience, book a private, closed-door tour of the exhibit through the museum’s Website (it must be booked in advance).
Even if you can’t make it to the museum before the Vogue exhibit closes, the Museo Franz Mayer should still be on your itinerary for any Mexico City vacation or business trip. It’s one of the city’s most fascinating museums, with a massive permanent collection of Mexican ceramics, textiles, silver and furniture, as well as a variety of temporary exhibits (also on view through September 15 is an impressive and impactful collection of World Press photos, while through October 20, 2019 the venue is also hosting “Between Fashion and Tradition: the Madame Rostan Collection”).
The museum’s setting is a big reason to visit, too. Housed in a 16th-century building that once served as a hospital, it’s graced with courtyards and soaring arches that beg to be photographed. Right next door is the Museo Nacional de la Estampa (check out my review of that museum’s current exhibit here), a smaller but also interesting museum that complements the creativity exhibited in the Franz Mayer. In Mexico City, there’s creativity at every turn.