Cartier at the NGV: Inside Melbourne's Winter Blockbuster
Four hundred jewels, royal tiaras, and a necklace set with Australian opals. The NGV's Winter Masterpieces is the show everyone will be posting until October. Here is what to see.
Every Melbourne winter, the NGV stakes everything on one blockbuster, and this year it is Cartier: the most photographed exhibition the city will see all season, and the one your feed is about to fill up with.
Cartier, the NGV's Winter Masterpieces show, brings together around four hundred objects from the French jeweller's history: royal tiaras, the famous Tutti Frutti pieces dripping with carved gemstones, and contemporary work, including pieces set with Australian opals from Lightning Ridge. It runs until early October, so there is no rush, but there will be a queue.
What to actually look at
Do not try to see everything. Spend your time on the tiaras (the craftsmanship is genuinely hard to believe up close), the Tutti Frutti, and the opal pieces, which are the local thread in an otherwise very Parisian story. Then go get a wine.
A blockbuster is not about seeing four hundred things. It is about standing in front of three you will never forget.
Make a night of it
The NGV runs Friday Nights alongside the show, with live music and a bar, which turns a gallery visit into an actual evening out, the kind you can bring people to who would never normally "do an exhibition". Time Out has a guide to the run.
Art is better with someone to disagree with afterwards. Bring the friend who has opinions.
Filed for The Dispatch. Margot walks one Melbourne pocket at a time and reports back on where to start.
