Cultural critics slam Kylie and Kate shows in London
The Victoria and Albert Museum's "Kylie -- The Exhibition" opens Thursday, the week before "Face of Fashion" at the National Portrait Gallery, which features fashion shoots of Moss, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Sting.
Both shows are set to be among the capital's biggest draws this year, but have provoked claims that state-subsidised museums are dumbing down in the face of government pressure to increase visitor numbers.
Stephen Bayley, a cultural commentator who set up London's Design Museum and has worked at the V and A, said he feared the exhibitions were "a capitulation to the cult of celebrity."
"You can make excellent things popular but it's not the same as saying popular things are excellent," he told AFP.
"You have to have a critical attitude, you have to be analytical and put things in context."
Bayley also described as "ruinous" government policies which he said "reward number chasing" and argued that the V and A must champion elitism.
The museum, founded in 1857, had been set up "to educated public taste," he said, and initially had a Chamber of Horrors to which 19th century curators consigned "errors of taste" like decorative frogs holding umbrellas.
Art critic Charles Thomson added that he feared "the sway of glamour has overcome what used to be independent academic rigour".
The Kylie show, which reporters got a sneak preview of Tuesday, features the Australian star's designer costumes modelled by mannequins which emphasise her famous bottom, as well as a mock-up of her dressing room.
A record 4,000 advance tickets have already been snapped up with public interest piqued by Minogue's successful comeback from breast cancer and split last week with long-term boyfriend Olivier Martinez.
Victoria Broackes, the V and A's head of exhibitions for the performing arts, told AFP that the show covered fashion, design and performing arts and worked "completely on its own merits".
"The exhibition itself is free, so whilst there will be thousands and thousands of visitors, the museum will benefit from extending its audience rather than financially," she added.
But finance is undoubtedly a major concern for British museums at the moment, particularly since their state funding comes from the department behind London's 2012 Olympics.
Officials say the Olympic park will cost 3.3 billion pounds (5.0 billion euros, 6.4 billion dollars), although critics predict the final cost could reach eight billion.
Sources have told AFP that many British museum workers are concerned about the impact this could have on their funding.
Broackes admitted that cash was "very tight" in museums but denied that the Kylie exhibition was designed to boost incomes through merchandising.
Asked about concerns funding may be hit by the Olympics, she added: "I've heard it said, but in fact funding has been decreasing for the museums for a number of years, even before the Olympics were announced."
A spokesman for Britain's culture ministry said that they expected museums would be committed to "broadening access" but stressed there was no direct link between funding and visitor numbers.
He accepted that museums may suffer a drop in funding due to the Olympics because some of the money they receive from the sale of National Lottery tickets now goes towards the Olympics.
Meanwhile, Susan Bright, curator of the "Face of Fashion" show, stressed that the National Portrait Gallery had a strong tradition of exhibiting fashion photography.
"There's enough in this exhibition to make you think about how portraits are put together and that's what we do best," she told AFP.
"That's really the idea behind it. We want people to realize that fashion images don't all look the same, they're enormously rich."
