Key garments from the world's largest private collection of Alexander McQueen showcased alongside images depicting the iconic duo's intertwined artistic journey and friendship.
Upon entering Lee Alexander McQueen & Ann Ray: Rendez-Vous, the new exhibit at Grand Rapids Art Museum, you're immediately transported into the world of the late iconic British designer Lee Alexander McQueen and French photographer Ann Ray.
The pair's 13-year friendship and intimate creative collaboration is explored through the display of over 50 spectacular pieces by McQueen spanning 1994 to 2010, alongside nearly 70 photographs by Ann Ray, who McQueen personally selected to photograph his design process and the behind-the-scenes experience of his runway shows.
The exhibition at GRAM—which will be on view now through January 12, 2025—is the final planned stop in the Rendez-Vous multi-city U.S. tour and is the only Midwest venue to date.
"The Grand Rapids Art Museum is honored to bring to West Michigan the work of the world's foremost contemporary designer, the late Lee Alexander McQueen, as well as that of artist Ann Ray," said Terra Warren, GRAM Associate Curator. "In Rendez-Vous, Ray's evocative and touching photography of McQueen's ambitious process, his increasingly adventurous and era-defining garments, and the models who adorned his creations brings the designer's fabled career and life into a new, more human light than we've ever seen before."
Over 50 McQueen garments in the exhibition were sourced from Barrett Barrera Projects, the largest private collection of McQueen's work and the owner of Ann Ray's full McQueen photographic archive. The exhibition also includes dress objects McQueen gifted to Ray over the course of their work together, giving visitors to the exhibition rare insight into their unique partnership.
Speaking of their close friendship, Ray said, "You know, it was simple. He was part of my life, we loved each other, I had rendez-vous."
McQueen and Ray's work together began with a simple agreement in which money, business considerations and fashion had no place.
"I like your images but I'm broke. Give me your photos, I'll give you clothes," Ray recalls McQueen expressing to her early in their relationship.
Together, the exhibition's objects and photographs provide an opportunity to reexamine the life and legacy of McQueen—a beloved but widely misunderstood figure—and to disentangle the person from the persona, the man from the myth.
From images of the iconic spray paint dress worn by Shalom Harlow in McQueen's spring 1999 show to pieces from McQueen's final collection (unofficially titled Angels & Demons that was ultimately finished by collaborator Sarah Burton following McQueen's untimely passing), the exhibit is one that's truly a triumph for GRAM and is not to be missed.
Learn more about the exhibition by visiting GRAM.
Written by Sarah Suydam, Managing Editor for West Michigan Woman.
Photos Courtesy of Sarah Suydam.
