Media Contacts: Shadia Lemus, 720-913-0096
slemus@denverartmuseum.org
Elle Welch, 720-913-0079
ewelch@denverartmuseum.org
Denver Art Museum Names Florence Müller as
Avenir Foundation Curator of Textile Art, Curator of Fashion
DENVER – Aug. 10, 2015 – The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is pleased to announce
Florence Müller, highly-regarded fashion and art historian, as the museum’s Avenir
Foundation Curator of Textile Art, Curator of Fashion. Müller’s extensive experience with
museums and collections in France and as an independent curator has led to the curation
and contribution to more than 100 exhibitions worldwide, including the 2012 Yves Saint
Laurent: The Retrospective exhibition for which the DAM was the exclusive U.S. venue.
Relocating from France to Denver, Müller will oversee the
Neusteter Textile Collection, housed in the 7,500-sq.-ft.
Textile Art Gallery on level six of the museum’s North
Building. Upon joining the staff in September 2015, Müller will
develop a strategic approach to expanding the current
holdings to include costume and fashion of the 20th and 21st
centuries.
“It’s a pleasure to welcome Florence back to Denver,” said
Christoph Heinrich, Frederick and Jan Mayer Director at the
DAM. “Her extensive experience and creative eye for
exhibition content and design, as seen in the Yves Saint
Laurent exhibition, makes her an outstanding addition to our
team and to the Denver community. I especially look forward
to her role in growing our collection in the area of fashion.”
Photo: Florence Müller
Since the 1980s Müller has worked on numerous major exhibitions that have debuted in
Europe, Asia and beyond, including Dior, the New look Revolution, Yves Saint Laurent
Style, Impressions Dior, Costume Jewelry for Haute Couture, Belles en Vogue,
Inspiration Dior, Mode et Art, Madeleine Vionnet, Mode et Libertés and many others.
Most recently, Müller curated Esprit Dior which opened in Shanghai and then traveled to
Tokyo and Seoul.
Other major projects include co-screenwriting for the film Histoire du Look, a series of five
films about fashion from the Roman period to the present; serving as a fashion advisor for
the LVMH Young Fashion Designer Award; consulting on an Air France uniform project,
which included a comparative study of uniforms from major airlines around the world and
advising on design before the creation of the new uniform designed by Christian Lacroix;
creating a new inventory system for the Musée du Textile et du Costume in Wesserling,
France; conducting the first European digital database of a costume collection; and
serving as the curator and later the director of the Union Française des Arts du Costume
in the prestigious Musée des Arts de la Mode in the Louvre.
“I am very pleased to work at the wonderful DAM, one of the major encyclopedic
museums in the U.S. with an ambitious program,” said Müller. “This museum is served by
leading architectural signatures and the most wonderful human and professional group of
contributors. It's a perfect chance to express how textile and fashion are essential actors
of our contemporary culture and for further understanding the history of civilizations."
When Müller was in Denver for the Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective exhibition in
2012, she also noted, “I was impressed by the stylish atmosphere of Denver during the
launch of the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition and discovered a huge interest for creation
among a very educated audience. Denver is a city full of fresh energy and vitality
connected with its traditional roots."
Beyond her curatorial practice, Müller is an experienced writer, freelance journalist,
consultant, juror and professor. She has worked with luxury fashion companies like Dior,
L’Oréal, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel and Céline. Müller has authored more than 20
publications and countless articles for museum catalogues and magazines such as
SURFACE, High Fashion, art press, Beaux Arts Magazine, Mix(t)e and more. Since the
1980s, Müller has been a professor in the discipline culture of fashion at the French
Institute of Fashion (IFM).
Müller has three times been awarded the Grand Prix du Livre de Mode (Grand Fashion
book prize) by the University of Fashion in Lyon, France, for the publications Yves Saint
Laurent, Excentriques and Baskets. Müller studied Worldwide History of Art and
Archaeology at the École du Louvre, Paris, and received a master’s of art history and
archeology from the University of Paris.
About the Denver Art Museum’s Textile Art Collection
The collections of the DAM’s department of textile art encompass more than 5,000
objects from Asia, Europe, North and South America and range from archeological
textiles to contemporary works of art in fiber. The collection began in 1927 with the gift of
a Kashmir shawl the museum’s first recorded non-American Indian textile. It expanded
dramatically between 1955 and 1992, assisted by the creation of the Neusteter Fashion,
Costume and Textile Institute in 1962, which for ten years helped support acquisitions
and promote artistic appreciation of the collection.
In 2013, a package of transformative gifts enabled the DAM to provide a more expansive
textile art experience for visitors. A major gift from Avenir Foundation enabled the
museum to endow the Textile Art department as well as renovate and expand both its
public gallery spaces and storage spaces for textiles. Museum trustee Nancy Lake
Benson provided funding for the hands-on Thread Studio inside the new gallery spaces.
A gift from the William H. Donner Foundation funded the PreVIEW space, which allows
visitors to watch fiber art conservation take place in the gallery. Selections of the Textile
Art collection are presented on level six of the North Building.
About the Denver Art Museum
The Denver Art Museum is an educational, nonprofit resource that sparks creative
thinking and expression through transformative experiences with art. Its holdings reflect
the city and region—and provide invaluable ways for the community to learn about
cultures from around the world. Metro citizens support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities
District (SCFD), a unique funding source serving hundreds of metro Denver arts, culture
and scientific organizations. For museum information, call 720-865-5000 or visit
www.denverartmuseum.org.
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