The Versace exhibit
by Michael Maiello

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be exhibiting the works of slain fashion designer Gianni Versace through next March. Of course, the intellectual snobs are angry about elevating a pop fashion designer to the prestige of a Met exhibition. It's another battle in the culture wars, where we struggle with the question "what is art" in an age where just about anything can be.

I'm all for it, myself. The Met doesn't exhibit fashion as art very often, so a little something different is always good. As an artist (your humble columnist likes writing fiction and plays), I've spent a lot of time around intellectual snobs. Hell, I've spent a lot of time being one.

Let's face it, it's easy to rag on pop culture. It's fun to make fun of Hollywood movies, television, and fashion shows. It's even important to make fun of these mediums, criticism is always important, and should be considered. But I also know how tough it is to make a living as an artist. I'm considering eating rejection letters and contributor copies of magazine in order to cut down on expenses next year.

Why is it so hard? Conventional wisdom says it's hard because of television, Hollywood movies, and fashion shows. It's hard to make a living because we have made ourselves into a low brow culture. That's an easy thing to say. I say it often. But I'm starting to doubt that mantra. The Greek tragedies were written for their society. Shakespeare wrote for his society. Part of being a great artist is finding a way of expressing yourself to the people you live with. It's not enough to fail and claim it all comes from being misunderstood.

So, Versace is at the Met. Admittedly, the Met went overboard on the exhibit, drawing comparisons between Versace and Yeats, Proust, and Tolouse Lautrec. It all sounds like intellectual masturbation and a bad attempt to justify the exhibit. The justification isn't necessary. Versace created fashions which affected people in our society. He considered himself a contemporary artist, and the Met considered that such a show would be interesting. We don't have to throw big names from literature and painting into the mix to justify the exhibit.

Is fashion art? I'd argue that as an extension of the Pop art movement, where advertising copy and collages became art, that fashion fits right in. Fashion designers tend to be educated and hard working, they view their craft as art. So, let's see. Put the stuff up and see what people think. Maybe it will draw some new people into the Met, out of curiosity or an interest in fashion.

In an age where art is dying in the United States, we should try new mediums and new exhibits. Art needs to take these risks, publicly and loudly. We need to build on what people already like and understand, and then take them to new places. People like to complain about Hollywood films, but they exempt foreign films, independent films, and art films. But Hollywood films were a beginning for me in terms of appreciation and understanding the medium. Star Wars was the first movie I loved, and that's a sheer out-and-out Hollywood blockbuster. Without Star Wars, I would never have been interested enough to seek out movies like The Pillow Book, or the works of Woody Allen or Kevin Smith.

We all have to start somewhere.

I used to read science fiction. I used to read only science fiction. The kind of stuff the snobs call "typical genre work". But spending my middle school years with those books open taught me how to read, understand, and enjoy literature in general. That mainstream genre opened up worlds of contemporary and classic literature. Reading any book is good practice for reading others.

Also, there are a group of visual artists in Albuquerque who have turned fashion into viable art through non-fabric fashion shows, where they create garments from condoms, old film reels, and garbage. It's pop culture looking at itself, and a good example of postmodern art. But, it's also fashion and the artists are designers.

So, let the Met have its Versace, and let's quit griping about. There's no "dumbing down" here, just an exploration into something different. If a contemporary fashion designer falls outside the established description of an artist, that's better for the exhibit. Art needs new blood, new artists, and new points of view.

Michael Maiello is still wandering the streets of New York. Anyone who comes into contact with him is encouraged to alert the authorities.

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