Beth Katleman Marie Antoinette Commission for Victoria & Albert Museum Makes Headlines
Beth Katleman in front of her in-progress design, as shown in her Brooklyn studio this summer. Courtesy of Wallpaper. Image credit: Fyodor Shiryaev
Cranbrook Academy of Art alumna Beth Katleman’s (MFA Ceramics 1995) commissioned installation Marie Antoinette’s Folly, featured in the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Marie Antoinette Style exhibition in London, is making headlines in the world’s top design, decor, and fashion publications.
Marie Antoinette’s Folly is a monumental porcelain tableau, composed of over 4,500 hand-cast miniatures that give form to a three-dimensional reinterpretation of toile de Jouy. On one side, pastoral scenes and courtly motifs evoke Marie Antoinette’s ornate world; on the flip side, darker allegories emerge—guillotines, severed heads, mirrors of execution—juxtaposing beauty with subversion.
In Elle Decor, Katleman explains that the two mirrored components of the work represent opposing facets of the queen’s narrative: the romance and power, and the tragedy and downfall. Meanwhile, Wallpaper highlights how the installation sits discretely behind Dior gowns in the exhibition’s final section—both a visual and conceptual anchor to the show’s conclusion.
Katleman’s style fuses Rococo ornament and kitsch, blending historical detail and contemporary critique. Her porcelain miniatures are molded from found objects—vintage figurines, toy parts, kitchen tools—and comprise stories that layer humor, irony, and poetic commentary.
Beyond fashion history, Katleman’s Marie Antoinette’s Folly positions itself as a performative and narrative gesture—both immersive and interpretive. Her work is central to the exhibition’s exploration of how the queen’s image has been retold across centuries and reshaped through art, fashion, and cultural imagination.
Exhibition view “Marie Antoinette Style” at V&A Museum with Beth Katleman’s installation wall to the left. Photo: Peter Kelleher.
Learn more:
This London Art Installation Reveals Marie Antoinette Like Never Before – Elle Decor
Inside the V&A’s Magical New “Marie Antoinette Style” Exhibition – Vogue
