When the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) opened its cavernous East London Storehouse in May of this year, it promised visitors a radical new cultural experience, offering an up-close view of conservators at work and immediate access to its archive of more than half a million works.
Soon afterwards, Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, stopped by V&A East for a tour, taking in the largest Picasso in the world and watching on as museum staff photographed collection items for the online archives. Middleton, who studied history of art at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, praised the museum’s transparency and the opportunity for the public to access the museum’s “historic” and “eclectic” collection.
It now appears that the royal V&A patron may also have been scoping out some objects to place within her very own exhibition, titled “Makers and Creators,” which the museum calls a mini display. Middleton has played curator selecting nine works that span art forms and the globe.
Installation view of “Makers and Curators,” a mini display curated by Kate Middleton at V&A East. Photo: David Parry / V&A.
Front and center in Middleton’s gridwall and glass display is a fairy costume designed by Oliver Messel for the Royal Ballet’s It was Messel’s most enduring production running for 15 years with the fairy costumes a mélange of English, Spanish, and French styles from the 17th and 18th centuries. The tutu and its accompanying headdress features morning glories, Messel’s favorite flower, with their flowers and leaves woven together with golden-brown thread for branches.
Resting against the back wall is a hand quilted bedcover that was made in Wales in the 1830s. Nearby is (ca. 1880–90), a painting by the American-born, Paris-trained painter George Henry Boughton. Also known as , “the thoughtful one” in Italian, it’s one half of a pair that explores the introverted and extroverted sides of a woman’s character. Here, Boughton presents innocence, faith, and curiosity in the form of a modestly dressed figure contemplating a daisy. A fun visual play arrives directly below with the sculpted stone hands of Clemence Dane, a pioneering 20th-century English novelist and playwright.
The mid-20th century sculpture by Clemence Dane alongside George Henry Boughton’s painting, on view in “Makers and Curators,” curated by Kate Middleton at V&A East. Photo: David Parry / V&A.
Below are two items related to Beatrix Potter, the children’s illustrator and author best-known for creating the world of Peter Rabbit. The first is a small watercolor and the second is a childhood photograph album that belonged to her father, turned to a spread of family photographs.
Rounding out “Makers and Creators” is a Qing dynasty porcelain vase crafted in the Imperial kilns of Jingdezhen, China, and a set of 15th-century earthenware tiles from a church in southern England. Resting outside is a three-panel screen crafted by William Morris’s eponymous design firm in the first decade of the 20th century drawing out the flowers from Middleton’s selection.
The Princess of Wales visiting the V&A East Storehouse in early June. Photo: Getty Images.
“A collection of objects can create a narrative, both about our past and as inspiration for the future,” Middleton wrote in the text accompanying wall the mini display. “This display celebrates our past makers and creators and illustrators how much historic objects can influence fashion, design, film, art, and creativity today.”
This is far from Middleton’s first curatorial outing. In 2022, she selected a group of images for the major exhibition “Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography” at London’s National Portrait Gallery, which featured in a Patron Trail. Earlier this year, she launched an interactive installation at the same museum, intended to support the social and emotional development of young children.
Source: Exhibition - news.artnet.com
