“Why have there been no great women artists?” That’s the question posed by Maria Grazia Chiuri when she presented her Spring 2018 collection for Dior this past September. The headline of Linda Nochlin’s 1971 article about the barriers female artists faced was splashed across slogan T-shirts that replaced the “We Should All Be Feminists” tees from the previous Spring. When Chiuri’s not waving the feminist flag on the runway, she’s doing her part to celebrate women in the art world. This was clear last night when Dior staged the Guggenheim’s annual pre-gala party. “I went to New York for the first time when I was 18 years old,” Chiuri said. “I remember the Guggenheim so well because I was so impressed with the building. It’s a piece of art.” Chiuri has become a regular at the museum, though its latest exhibition, “Art and China After 1989: Theater of the World,” is enough to boggle the mind of the most seasoned guest, not least of all for its unprecedented size, the largest of its kind in North America.
