Sara Berman's Closet art installation heads to The Met

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Mar 10, 2017

'Sara Berman’s Closet', an art installation by Maira and Alex Kalman, opened at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday in the Deedee Wigmore Galleries.

 
The new exhibit, which tells an American story of immigration and acculturation, showcases the belongings of the late Sara Berman, an immigrant from Belarus that settled in the Bronx. Maira and Alex, Sara’s daughter and grandson, recreated the closet that includes all-white apparel and accessories. Several details from Sara’s closet are retained in the exhibit including neatly arranged stacks of starched and precisely folded clothing.
 
“Sara was beautiful inside and out; her hair was white, and she wore only white clothes,” said artist Maira Kalman to T Magazine in 2015. The Kalmans first held the exhibit at Mmuseumm 2 in New York City. Alex Kalman co-founded Mmuseumm, a 20-square-foot art space on Cortlandt Alley, and he serves as Director.

Sara Berman was born in Belarus in 1920, and married in Tel Aviv before moving to New York City. After leaving her husband, her money, and her belongings, she moved to a small studio apartment in Greenwich Village, where she maintained a modest, yet impeccable closet. The exhibit dedicated to her closet and her honor opened 12 years after her passing in 2014.
 
'Sara Berman’s Closet' will be on display until September 5, 2017. The installation is showcased next to the recently installed 'Worsham-Rockefeller Dressing Room' that features clothing from the 1880t worn by wealthy art patroness Arabella Worsham.