Art Simone turns heads in Weeping Woman dress at NGV’s Picasso exhibit

RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under star Art Simone has turned heads at the NGV in a striking Weeping Woman-inspired outfit.

Drag queen Art Simone in her Weeping Woman dress next to the painting on show at NGV International’s Picasso Century exhibition. Picture: Jason Edwards

Art Simone wasn’t first in, but she has a strong claim as the best dressed visitor to The Picasso Century exhibition.

The Melbourne drag queen donned her Weeping Woman ensemble – complete with “Picasso pants” – to visit the National Gallery of Victoria, where the 1937 painting that inspired the outfit is on display alongside 80 other Pablo Picasso works.

“I should have walked around with a frame around my head,” she said.

Simone snuck in a visit within a few weeks of the exhibition’s October 9 closing date, during which extended opening hours will apply.

She worked with designer Pashion Couture to create the Weeping Woman get-up to wear while doing media for the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under.

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Art Simone says the outfit is one of her favourites. Picture: Jason Edwards

The Weeping Woman is part of the NGV’s permanent collection.

She also turned heads when she wore the dress to the opening of the Queer: Stories from the NGV Collection exhibition earlier this year.

“I’m a proud Melburnian, and there’s so much folklore around the Weeping Woman painting,” Simone said.

“And I love Picasso’s work because of the really unique way he interprets and reframes faces – that’s what I get to do with makeup every day.”

Simone said the outfit was “one of my absolute favourites” largely due to the pants, which she thought might have caused a bit more of a stir.

“We did a little bit of dodgy in printing a version of the Weeping Woman on the pants,” she said.

“I was thinking, ‘are we going to get in trouble for this?’ But I don’t think the NGV is too angry with me!”

The Picasso Century exhibition at the NGV will have extended opening hours until it closes on October 9. Picture: David Caird

Simone and her extensive wardrobe of fabulous clothes will be hitting the road with the media personality when she joins the Drag Race Down Under tour of Australia and New Zealand from September 28.

The tour will visit Melbourne’s Palais Theatre on October 14.

She also launched new 12-part podcast Concealed, with iHeartRADIO and KIIS this week.

“The premise is I, of all people, know what it’s like to live a double life, and every week I get put in a room with a complete stranger (and) have to use my investigative skills to work out what they’re concealing from me,” Simone said.

“It could be a hobby, a skill, an outlandish job.

“After the big reveal I interview them. It’s like a blind date.”

The Picasso Century – which also features 100 further works by about 50 of the Spanish master’s contemporaries – will be open from 9am-5pm until October 8, and from 9am-10pm on its final day, October 9.

ngv.vic.gov.au