Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Avenue of the Arts
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston
617-267-9300
Walk This Way
September 27, 2007-March 23, 2008

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) has a world-renowned collection of shoes from throughout the ages, which it will showcase in the exhibition Walk This Way. From ancient Egyptian and Nubian sandals to contemporary designs by Vivienne Westwood and Marc Jacobs, the collection provides fertile ground for exploring the shoe and its cultural significance. About 25 shoes, shown individually or in sets, will be placed throughout the Museum’s galleries and “paired” with a wide range of works from the MFA’s encyclopedic collection of art to which they are related historically, artistically, or culturally, providing insights into their design and use. For example, a pair of 17th-century slap-soled shoes will be exhibited with a genre painting by the Dutch artist Eglon van der Neer, in which a man wears a similar style, and a pair of wedges with rococo carved heels from the current MIU MIU collection will be exhibited with 18th-century carved furniture.

While shoes serve a practical function, they have long been prized as highly ornamented objects of obsession. At their most sensible, shoes, boots and sandals were made from simple, readily available materials that stood up to wear and tear, such as the plaited reed sandals of ancient Egypt or wooden clogs, or geta, worn by Japanese. At their most lavish, high-status shoes, like those worn by well-heeled Hollywood celebrities, European royalty or Indian princes, have been embellished with diamonds, rubies or pearls. Whatever the materials or cost, shoes have always reflected the time and place in which they were made and worn, the status of the owner, and the skills and creativity of the people who designed and produced them. Walk This Way is a treasure hunt throughout the Museum, and offer intriguing surprises for both those seeking every example on display, and those who happen to stumble upon them.

Colossal statue of King Aspelta¸ Napatan Period, reign of Aspelta, 593-568 B.C., Nubian, Granite gneiss
Height: 332.1 cm, Findspot: Gebel Barkal, Nubia, Sudan,
Harvard University — Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.