Lately, the WSJ has me cringing, but this story was a much need distraction.
Since May, The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibit has drawn impressive crowds. Now the official attendance is in and the exhibit is the eighth most-visited show in the museum's history.
I wish I could have viewed the exhibit, but I am glad Alexander McQueen was so well-received as he truly was an artist.
(I tried to link through Google so you can read the article without a WSJ subscription, but if it doesn't work, he is the text.)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced the official results of its blockbuster exhibit "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty," which ran from May 4 to Aug. 7. A total of 661,509 visitors attended the exhibition, and more than 23,000 new members signed up during the run. By opening the exhibit on eight Mondays, when the museum is traditionally closed, the Met drew an additional 17,000 people; entry on those Mondays cost $50.
The crowds, which often waited in five-hour lines, made the exhibit the eighth most-visited show in the Met's 141-year history, and the highest-attended exhibit created by the Costume Institute, which joined the museum in 1946. Before the McQueen exhibit, the top-ranked Costume Institute show was 2008's "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy," which welcomed 576,000 visitors.
The Met extended the exhibit's initial run by one week, but the show must make way for an upcoming exhibit of Indian paintings.
Here's a look at the 10 most popular exhibits in the museum's history:
1.'Treasures of Tutankhamun,'12/78-4/79,1,360,957 visitors
2. 'Mona Lisa,' 2/63-3/63, 1,077,521visitors
3.'The Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art'
2/83-5/83, 896,743 visitors
4. 'Painters in Paris: 1895-1950,' 3/00-1/01,
883,620 visitors
5.'Origins of Impressionism,' 9/94-1/95, 794,108 visitors
6. 'The Horses of San Marco,' 2/80-8/80, 742,221 visitors
7.'Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art,' 4/10-8/10, 703,256 visitors
8.'Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty,' 5/11-8/11, 661,509 visitors
9.'Jeff Koons on the Roof,' 4/08-10/08, 657,801 visitors
10. 'Doug + Mike Starn on the Roof: Big Bambú,' 4/10-10/10, 631,064 visitors
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....lenews_wsj
