First Museum Exhibition of Perfume as Art Form in Museum of Arts & Design

"The first-ever museum exhibition on perfume as an art form will premiere at the Museum of Arts and Design in November 2011. Organized by MAD and curated by Chandler Burr, the scent critic for The New York Times, The Art of Scent, 1889-2011 will examine ten pivotal scents as masterful works of art, crafted from both natural raw materials and synthetic molecules. A special installation designed by architect Toshiko Mori that utilizes atomizing machines will provide visitors with a pure, olfactory experience of each work in the exhibition.
The Art of Scent highlights major stylistic developments in the history of olfactory art, beginning in the late nineteenth century—when the use of synthetic materials ushered in the modern era of fragrances—through the present day." [source]
The interesting part is that it will be a semi-blind reception of the odoriferous craftmanship that is ingrained in the 10 fragrances presented: the viewers will be smelling the scents in identical canisters, devoid of the outer characteristics and only demarcated by name, perfumer and year of creation; this idea is carried on to the exhibition catalogue that will offer 10 identical sample vials of the perfumes presented alongside essays by Chandler Burr. His goal? "My goal for this exhibition is to transform the ways in which people respond to scent artists and their art. The works presented in this exhibition are ones that have each had a profound impact on the history of this artistic medium." These works include Jicky, Chanel No.5, Fracas, Eau d'Issey, Angel and Pleasures.