Well-Heeled Controversy : ‘Art of the Shoe’ Exhibit at L.A. County Museum Stirs a Ruckus

Designer shoes worn by stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Greta Garbo are attracting hordes of the curious to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

But the exhibit is also attracting the scorn of some critics who say that Salvatore Ferragamo, the chi-chi Italian shoe company that paid an undisclosed sum for the exhibition--as well as the black-tie dinner that preceded it--is using the museum as an advertising and public relations soapbox.

“If you have enough money to underwrite your own exhibit, you can write your own history,” said Ronald K. L. Collins, co-founder of the Center for the Study of Commercialism, a Washington-based consumer lobby.

At issue is the increasingly fuzzy line between what is--and what is not--advertising. Also at issue is whether public institutions should pay homage to companies--no matter how deserving--that could benefit financially from the display of their products.

Officials at the County Museum of Art strongly deny that the 4,000-square-foot display of 200 pairs of Ferragamo shoes is commercialism. “As an art museum, we’re here to show the public art,” said Edward Maeder, the museum’s curator of costumes and textiles. “It is our opinion that this show is artwork created by the preeminent shoe designer of the 20th Century.”

Aside from the show itself--dubbed “The Art of the Shoe”--part of a museum gift shop has been temporarily converted into a boutique that sells Ferragamo items, from $175 neckties to $375 sweaters.

Meanwhile, the exhibition has boosted sales at Ferragamo’s Rodeo Drive shop, where the fancy footwear sells for $150 to $1,975 a pair and exhibit posters grace the storefront. In addition, Saks Fifth Avenue, I. Magnin and Neiman-Marcus, which also sell Ferragamo shoes, are promoting the exhibit.

“Eventually, you won’t be able to go into any museum, library or public institution without being overwhelmed by commercialism,” said Herbert Schiller, professor of communications at UC San Diego. “When a company takes over public space at a museum, it’s not serving the public’s needs, but its own marketing needs.”

A growing number of advertisers looking to stand out from the crowd are searching for inventive ways to place their names--and products--in the public eye. Pepsi, for example, recently paid to have its new logo placed briefly on the Hollywood sign. Last year, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., agreed to begin posting the logos of some corporations that sponsor major exhibits there.

Big-time museums and institutions, which have seen government funds and individual donations shrink during the recession, are the most recent targets of companies seeking to get their names in front of influential consumers.

“In the current financial climate, if we had to underwrite the exhibition, chances are we would not have been able to do it,” Maeder said of the shoe exhibit.

Some major museums have established informal guidelines against such showings.

“We would not show an exhibition from a manufacturer,” said John Ross, manager of public information at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. He declined, however, to criticize Los Angeles County museum officials.

Although numerous exhibits in the Metropolitan are sponsored by corporations--from Alamo Rent a Car to Chase Manhattan Bank--the museum routinely turns down major clothing designers, Ross said. When a museum showcases art, he said, “it’s marketability increases.”

The last time the New York museum exhibited work from a for-profit designer was nearly a decade ago, when it displayed Yves Saint Laurent designs the museum believed were worthy of an exception on the basis of artistic merit. Earl Alexander Powell III the Los Angeles County Museum of Art director, a top candidate for the post of director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, was unavailable for comment. Robert F. Maguire III, president of the county museum’s board of trustees, did not return phone calls. Neither did Massimo Ferragamo, son of founder Salvatore Ferragamo.

The elder Ferragamo died in 1960. Massimo Ferragamo is president of the New York-based Moda Imports, which imports the shoes into the United States.

Museum officials pointed out that two prestigious European museums have already hosted the exhibit. What’s more, officials say, county museum officials approached Ferragamo.

Salvatore Ferragamo is of keen local interest, Maeder said, because his career began in Santa Barbara and expanded a decade later into Hollywood, where he became the “shoemaker to the stars.”

Maeder emphasized that the shoes exhibited are only those created before the death of Salvatore Ferragamo. The firm will donate several pairs of shoes to the museum’s permanent collection, he said.

On Thursday, the Center for the Study of Commercialism sent a letter to Maguire, president of the museum board, asking the museum to post a notice informing visitors that the exhibit is paid advertising.

The letter criticizes the museum for “renting out exhibit space--and renting out its prestige--to whomever has the resources and a colorable excuse for an exhibit.”

Meanwhile, sales at the Ferragamo shoe store in Beverly Hills are up about 20% since the exhibition began, said Gary Nelson, store director.