Installation view of “Solid Gold.” (Photo: Paula Abreu Pita)
A 200th anniversary demands a sense of grandeur. Matthew Yokobosky, senior curator of fashion and material culture at the Brooklyn Museum, conjured exactly that while curating the exhibition that would mark the museum’s bicentennial.
Open until July 6, 2025, the exhibition, titled Solid Gold, focuses on its eponymous material and its enduring appeal across fashion, art, film, music, and design. Featuring more than 500 works across time and space, the show encompasses everything from opulent Italian altarpieces, shimmering garments from top fashion houses, ancient jewelry, and contemporary sculptures. Over 100 objects are also being displayed for the first time since entering the museum’s collection, including Edward Steichen’s Lunar Moth baby grand piano.
“Seeing how prevalent gold has been throughout history, as a means of trade and especially in art and design, is fascinating,” says Pinar Noorata, editorial director at My Modern Met. “Everything from a 13th-century Roman mosaic made of glass and gold leaf to a contemporary, solid gold sculpture of supermodel Kate Moss has a place in this exhibition. The range of mediums represented in this exhibition, originating from various points in time over the course of hundreds of years, is truly remarkable. It really gives you a sense of how a single color has shaped multiple societies and cultures.”
Solid Gold is as grand as it is sweeping, and serves as a fitting tribute to the museum’s 200th anniversary. It’s almost as though the exhibition traces gold’s history alongside the Brooklyn Museum’s own evolution, from its beginnings as a public circulating library to its current position as one of the country’s oldest and largest art museums. After all, Yokobosky explains to My Modern Met, the exhibition is intended to embrace “all the collections [found] in the museum.”
“Coming at a time post-Covid, and being a time of celebration, developing an exhibition around a material associated with joy seemed a key consideration,” Yokobosky says.
My Modern Met had the chance to speak with Yokobosky about Solid Gold and the curatorial process behind it. Read on for our exclusive interview with the Brooklyn Museum curator.
Installation view of “Solid Gold.” (Photo: Paula Abreu Pita)
“The Jerome Project (My Loss)” by Titus Kaphar — portraits of nearly 100 incarcerated men who shared a first name with the artist’s father. (Photo: Pinar Noorata / My Modern Met)
“The Jerome Project (My Loss)” by Titus Kaphar. (Photo: Pinar Noorata / My Modern Met)
“The Jerome Project (My Loss)” by Titus Kaphar — details of oil, gold leaf, and tar on wood panels. (Photo: Pinar Noorata / My Modern Met)
What was the original inspiration behind Solid Gold?
For the Brooklyn Museum’s 200th anniversary, we were interested in developing an exhibition that could embrace all the collections in the museum, from ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern, through African, Asian, the Americas, and Europe, and time-wise through Contemporary.
Our collection holds approximately 4,000 works that are either gold or have a gold aspect, and appear in all areas of the collection. The selection was then further expanded by works made from materials that simulate the look of gold, such as Lurex.
From this vast list, over 250 works were selected for Solid Gold, with over 100 of them on view for the first time since entering the museum’s collection. After aligning and grouping the works, I then infused the narrative with loans of art, fashion, and jewelry to expand the relationships and visual conversations.
“Venere degli stracci dorata (Golden Venus of Rings)” by Michelangelo Pistoletto. (Photo: Pinar Noorata / My Modern Met)
“Venere degli stracci dorata (Golden Venus of Rings)” by Michelangelo Pistoletto. (Photo: Pinar Noorata / My Modern Met)
“Venere degli stracci dorata (Golden Venus of Rings)” by Michelangelo Pistoletto. (Photo: Pinar Noorata / My Modern Met)
Installation view of “Solid Gold.” (Photo: Paula Abreu Pita)
Installation view of “Solid Gold.” (Photo: Paula Abreu Pita)
The show celebrates Brooklyn Museum’s 200th anniversary. Why did the subject of gold feel relevant to the occasion?
Gold in the pre-science world, millennia ago, was thought to be the product of golden sunlight and water, since alluvial gold was found in streams and riverbeds. While it was later mined in locations throughout the world, gold’s association with the sun continued, and it is why spiritual and political figures and statuary have often been adorned in gold, making their connection to the heavens.
Gold has immediate connections to ideas of honor, joy, and wealth. Coming at a time post-Covid, and being a time of celebration, developing an exhibition around a material associated with joy seemed a key consideration.
“Path to Nine” by Zadik Zadikian — a wall of 999 gold leaf-covered bars. (Photo: Pinar Noorata / My Modern Met)
Installation view of “Solid Gold.” (Photo: Paula Abreu Pita)
Installation view of “Solid Gold.” (Photo: Paula Abreu Pita)
What was the curatorial process behind the exhibition?
Because the exhibition’s aperture was formed from the museum’s permanent collection with an emphasis on bringing works out of storage, we were in constant dialogue with the conservation team regarding cleaning and restorative techniques, framing and mounts, and other processes necessary for the presentation of these works.
What was possible time-wise was a constant consideration. Having this checklist of artworks began the curatorial process, which evolved as we learned which loans would be available during the exhibition run of eight months. These works were further refined and sequenced into the final six sections.
Installation view of “Solid Gold.” (Photo: Paula Abreu Pita)
Installation view of “Solid Gold.” (Photo: Paula Abreu Pita)
“Siren” by Marc Quinn — detail of solid gold statue of model Kate Moss in a yoga position. (Photo: Pinar Noorata / My Modern Met)
What is one of your favorite parts of the exhibition, and what do you hope people will take away from it?
I’m very pleased that we are presenting Marc Quinn’s iconic sculpture Siren (Kate Moss), from 2008, in America for the first time. Made of 110 pounds of gold—Moss’s weight at the time of production—the sculpture presents Moss in a yoga-inspired, bird-like pose, referencing the “sirens” of classical mythology who lured sailors into dangerous waters with irresistible songs, ultimately leading to their deaths. Moss’ position as a supermodel of today echoes the siren’s original command, though in less perilous situations. In gold, the sculpture references glistening statues from ancient times up to today, whose appearance and radiant poses referenced the sun, the star whose energy makes life on Earth possible, and thus the entity that we equate with important figures in our Earthly world.
As one of the motives for developing the exhibition was to give visitors a feeling of joy, I hope that visitors do have an “uplifted” sense of themselves as they leave the exhibition. Of course, since a lot of time goes into the selection of works, research, and writing of exhibition text, I also hope that visitors have a non-verbal or verbal sense of learning from spending an hour or so looking at the works and reading the texts.
I’m always very pleased when someone tells me that they hadn’t seen something before, or that they didn’t know about something until they visited the exhibition. Leaving with a sense of joy and learning are great complements to the Brooklyn Museum as it plays a role in people’s lives.