It’s no wonder this collection by Francesco Vezzoli is called The Museum of Crying Women – you would cry too if someone embroidered your eyeball. The needle-wielding Italian is bringing his tearful ladies to the city of Doha, Qatar, for an exhibition at the QMA Gallery, which represents the artist’s first show in the Middle East.
Vezzoli’s collection is populated by a string of important female figures of fashion, cinema and politics. Italian über-icon Sophia Loren appears as a bronze sculpture, but the majority of the crying women are brought to life by portraits augmented with collage and Vezzoli’s signature ocular additions. Lady Gaga, Liz Taylor and Joan Crawford make an appearance, as well as some names less well-known outside the region – such as Arab singer Oum Kalthoum – but East and West are united in sadness at the fierce glare of the spotlight of public life. The exhibition, which is being displayed in an environment reminiscent of the Palace of Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors, is running now and will continue until 30 November.
Jane & Gloria
2013
Laserprint and watercolour on canvas, metallic embroidery, metal needle
Detail – 2 elements – Diam: 26 cm each – Unique
Courtesy of the Artist
Installation view
You Who Enjoyed My Tears (Oum Kalthoum’s Hall Of Fame)
2013
Laserprint on canvas with metallic embroidery
16 elements – Various Dimensions – Unique
Detail
Courtesy of the Artist
Head of Lady Gaga as Minerva Crying Apollinaire (After de Chirico)
2009
Inkjet print on canvas, cotton and metallic embroidery, paper, artist’s frame
Detail – 70 x 58 cm – Unique
Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
Olga Forever (Olga Khokhlova, ca. 1917)
2012
Oil on canvas, laserprint and embroidery collage
Detail – 121 x 84 cm – Unique
Courtesy Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte + Almine Rech Gallery
Photo: Phillipe D. Photography
Installation view
You Who Enjoyed My Tears (Oum Kalthoum’s Hall Of Fame)
2013
Laserprint on canvas with metallic embroidery
16 elements – Various Dimensions – Unique
Detail
Courtesy of the Artist
Installation view
