Last year, I, like many of my cohorts in the fashion and museums world, were regulated to digital and print representations of the exhibitions that were on view. For me this meant that I read about more exhibitions than I actually saw in person. Reading descriptions of art and material culture objects and looking at their photos in a catalogue can be limiting in gaining a full understanding of an exhibition. This is particularly true when it comes to feeling the emotional provocations created by the exhibition’s design. However, this does not diminish the importance and necessity of an exhibition’s catalogue as it still represents the scholarship and ethos of the physical exhibition. So even though I was not able to travel to many of the exhibitions that I intended to review, I had the opportunity to read many catalogues and was grateful to have that avenue of connection to displays around the world whilst I was stuck at home.
One catalogue that I read last summer was for the exhibition “Portraying Pregnancy: From Holbein to Social Media” at The Foundling Museum in London. While the show was not garment-focused, maternity wear was certainly addressed as a consistent topic of discussion as it appears in portraiture through Western history. Check out my review of “Portraying Pregnancy” in the Fashion and Motherhood issue of Fashion Studies Journal. Alongside my thoughts on the catalogue, you can also read FSJ contributor Eanna Morrison Barrs’ review of the exhibition which she was able to see in person prior to the museum’s closing.
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