A new exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum aims to show how “gold has served as a powerful form of communication and self-expression for millennia.” Big ambitions deserve a big show: The 500 objects in “Solid Gold,” around half drawn from across the museum’s collections, include ancient Greek jewelry, Egyptian funerary objects, amulets made by Indigenous artisans in pre-conquest Latin America, 14th-century Italian altarpieces, gold-toned photography, illuminated manuscripts, Japanese folding screens, Hollywood film, a Peruvian gilded bed frame, technology and industrial design, and gold and diamond grills (or grillz).
But this is ultimately a show about fashion. Curated by a team led by Matthew Yokobosky, “Solid Gold” tells a story about the way couturiers have used gold in their designs as the ultimate expression of luxury, one that connotes royalty, power, outrageous wealth and conspicuous consumption. It’s a multisensory extravaganza with a soundscape and light show, and — as is often the case with Brooklyn Museum exhibitions lately — celebrity is front and center.
‘Egyptian Disco’ From the Blonds
A high mounted screen near the start of the exhibition shows a clip of Elizabeth Taylor in 1963 film “Cleopatra.” She and the film are recurring themes in the exhibition, embodiments of the Egyptomania that runs through the pieces here. John Galliano’s spring/summer 2004 collection for Dior has a headpiece that could have come straight out of King Tut’s tomb. The Blonds, the glam duo who focus on sexy, bedazzled custom designs for celebrity clients like Beyoncé and Rihanna, channeled Taylor’s Technicolor version of Cleopatra’s style in their spring/summer 2016 “Egyptian Disco” collection. The garments are confected of sequins, lamé, crystals, beads, gold-leaf laminate and 24-karat gold-chain piping. (Much of the fashion in the show is gold-colored, rather than made of gold, but there are some pretty spectacular exceptions.)
Ancient Gold
All the bling in the world can’t distract from the charms of the ancient artifacts on display nearby, including a pair of tiny beads in the shape of flies made in Egypt circa 1539 to 1292 B.C.E., and a fourth-century B.C.E. cache of gold ornaments and jewelry from the Eastern Mediterranean — not only because of their delicate perfection, but also because they managed to survive this long. Even though it doesn’t corrode or tarnish, and thus can last a really long time, gold was commonly reused in the ancient world — melted down and shaped into new forms. When it endures, it feels a little bit miraculous.