A Doll Down the Decades

Celebrating Barbie’s 65th anniversary, a show tracks her ever-expanding world from 1959 to today

- LAURA JACOBS

There's very little text in the exhibition "Barbie: A Cultural Icon," at the Museum of Arts and Design. Born on March 9, 1959-when she had her debut at the New York Toy FairMattel's "Teenage Fashion Model" doll has figured in the cultural conversation ever since. And what a figure! Back in 1994, when she turned 35, there were books, articles and academic studies aplenty that took on the semiotics of bosomy Barbie.

They invoked her forerunner, Bild Lilli, a German doll based on a racy comic-book character. They examined her über-model dimensions and bemoaned the ridiculous anatomical ideal she embodied. The conversation was intellectual and political, with undertones of both affection and exasperation. Greta Gerwig's 2023 blockbuster movie, released on the eve of Barbie's 65th year, juggled these very issues.

The exhibition at MAD bypasses such discourse and lets the dolls do the talking. On the fifth floor, it begins in 1959 and travels through the 1970s; on the fourth floor, it picks up in the 1980s and continues through today. In a scrapbook-style montage of opening commentary, we learn that Ruth Handler, the co-founder of Mattel, "wanted to create a doll with adult features so girls could play out their futures." These myriad "futures" are the focus of the show, which was organized by the costume-and-textile curator Karan Feder, in partnership with Mattel Inc.