exhibits

Maria Callas Costumes Go On Display In New York

Filed under: Events

Maria Callas is a bit lost to the current generation but the late opera singer was once one of the world's most glamorous women and she had the closet to prove it. Stage costumes, dresses and jewelry belonging to the passionate diva are on display at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York.

The exhibit titled "A Woman, A Voice, A Myth" features memorabilia and photos gathered by Bruno Tosi, President of Associazione Culturale Maria Callas. The exhibition has toured the world and this event has been organized in collaboration with the Consulate General of Greece-New York , with major support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Hellenic Parliament Foundation.

Callas, who died in 1977, was born in New York City but received her musical education in Greece and was first famous for her opera singing in Italy where her musical gifts earned her the nickname La Divina. Callas is also famous for her equally dramatic personal life. After a successful career the beautiful diva fell for Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis while she was still married to her husband. She left him for Onassis and the pair were together nine years until Onassis left her for Jacqueline Kennedy.

The exhibit run through March 30 in New York.

Tags: aristotle onassis, exhibition, exhibits, maria callas, opera

Katharine Hepburn's Legacy Celebrated With Stamp, Museum Exhibit

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel

Legendary actress and fashion icon Katharine Hepburn has gotten her own stamp. The United States Postal Service's newly-issued commemorative stamp on Katharine Hepburn went on sale last week. The stamp portrait is a publicity photograph from Woman of the Year (MGM, 1942), the comedy that first put Hepburn together with her on and off-screen love interest, Spencer Tracy.

The stamp sets the stage for a renewed focus on Hepburn's legacy. At Kent State University this fall, the KSU Museum will be showcasing an exhibition: "Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen," which opens October 2, 2010 and ends September 4, 2011. The exhibit will display many of the costumes designed for Hepburn in her movies and Broadway shows (including her turn as Coco Chanel). The museum has over 1,000 pieces of her belongings including the performance clothes and spans Hepburn's long career. The exhibit may later tour other museums.

As a video on the project (after the jump) reveals, finding mannequins to wear the clothes was no easy task. In her early years the actress had a waist of just 20 inches and some mannequins had to be carved down to fit the clothing.

[via NY Post]

Tags: exhibits, Katharine Hepburn, museum, museum exhibit, museum exhibition

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Pietre Dure Exhibit At The Met

by Tracy Chait (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Art

If summer holidays have kept you out of the city, you may have a treat waiting for you upon arrival in New York: the pietre dure (Italian for "hard stones") exhibit at the Met. The museum's second floor galleries are filled with ornately designed furniture, vases, and various objêts d'art all featuring hand-carved pietre dure that could take artisans years to complete for just one piece. As highly valued now as then, one recently auctioned example of pietre dure was sold for $36.7 million in 2004.

The exhibit will run until September 21. If your travels won't take you down 5th Avenue by then, see the gallery for stunning examples of this painstakingly rendered art.

Gallery: Art of the Royal Court: Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe