Glamour and Glitter

Summer Exhibitions

Surreal Things, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

The exhibit explores the Surrealists collaborations with the commercial fields of design, advertising, fashion, architecture, film and theatre.  This exhibit has already made the rounds in Europe (including London and Bilbao), but for its North American run, enhancements have been made.  Key loans of works by Dali, Miro, Magritte, etc. have been made by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Conneticut, as well as 14 surrealist works from the AGO itself.

Fashion has been a long time lover of surrealism and the collaborations have been numerous.  With rumours of a Schiaparelli relaunch, we can bet her work (and collaborations) are on a lot of designers minds.  Particularly from this exhibit, we see the costume designs of de Chirico for the Ballets Russes inspiring perhaps Marc Jacobs.  The Dali brooch screams Sonia Rykiel.

Salvador Dali Ruby Lips brooch, 1949

Giorgio de Chirico's costume designs for Diaghilev's Le Bal, 1929

Man Ray, Model (Lee Miller) in Dominguez' Wheelbarrow, 1937

Bauhaus; A Conceptual Model, Martin-Gropius-Bau Exhibition Hall, Berlin

With over 1000 examples of the school's work, this is the largest ever Bauhaus retrospective.  The Bauhaus School is an emotional subject for Berlin, having opened and flourished in 1919, and shut down by the Nazi Government in 1933.  The exhibition goes far beyond the familiar Bauhaus Industrial Design style, showing also things like paper cuttings by students and expressionist painting by teachers.

We can see designers being inspired by architectural drawings for prints.  Maybe the Bauhaus design concepts of functionality and simplicity will inspire designers to take a more minimalistic approach next season.

Lis Beyer or Ise Gropius seated in the stell-tube armchair designed by Marcel Breuer, 1926

Eugen Batz, The Spatial Effect of Colours and Forms, 1929/30

a glimpse of the exhibit

Martin Parr

THE exhibition of the summer: Planète Parr at the Jeu de Paume, Paris.

Predicting saturated, bright colours for Spring 2010...

Auction Round-Up

The New York Times Online Art & Design Section has great slideshows.  They often have round-ups of art recently sold in auction.  We have a certain fascination with attainable art.  We love auctions and art fairs because there's the added thrill of the possibility to own.  This element also changes one's perspective on the art, forcing, we think, a more personal response - subjective not objective.  What is also exciting is that this privately owned art is so often unknown to us and these new discoveries excite and make for great inspiration.

From this week's Impressionist and Modern Art Sale at Christie's, we found these works in particular made us dream.

Hélène, Alexej von Jawlensky

Make-up Inspiration

Sold for £1,385,250

Watercolour on Paper work, Paul Klee, 1917

Print and Colour Inspiration

Sold for £385,250

Springende Pferde (Jumping Horses), Franz Marc, 1910

Print, Texture, and Colour Inspiration

Sold for £3,373,250

June Exhibitions

This month, many exciting art & design exhibitions are going on around the world.  Here is our selection of what we think will influence the fashion world the most:

The New Acropolis Museum, Athens

Scheduled to open this weekend, the New Acropolis Museum is one of the most anticipated cultural projects of the decade.  It's modern design by architect Bernard Tschumi has been a bit controversial for the Greeks, juxtaposed with its neighbour, the Parthenon.  The collection is heavily concentrated on Ancient Greek art including some of the original panels of the Parthenon frieze, depicting a procession in honour of Athena.

Expect designers to be inspired by the "wet drapery" look of the sculptures' garb, and perhaps the colour range and pattern possibilities of stone.  Special dedication to Greek native Sophia Kokosalaki and designers like Chris Benz who will be vacationing in Mykonos this summer.

At the Russian Court, Hermitage Museum, Amsterdam

Also opening this month is the expanded Hermitage Amsterdam.  Aiming to bring more of Russia's artistic heritage to Western Europe, the museum is ten times larger than before.  The inaugural exhibition, At the Russian Court: Palace and Protocol in the 19th century, includes over 1800 objects on loan from the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.  The grandeur and power of the period is shown threw hundreds of ball gowns and other costumes, court paintings, jewelry by Fabergé, and furniture including the famous Romanov throne.

Expect designers to be inspired by the opulence of Russian Court dressing.  Gold embroideries, brocades, moirés, and satin shoes are all details that will be of interest.  This exhibit is guaranteed to please Christian Lacroix, and we're guessing Erdem too.

Banksy, Bristol Museum, Bristol

Mysterious graffiti artist, Banksy, returns home to Bristol to 'remix' the museum's permanent collection and exhibit over 100 of his own works.  It is the largest Banksy show to date.  With lots of humour, Banksy has modified permanent exhibits like adding certain props to make a lion look like he has eaten his tamer.

Expect designers to be influenced by his sense of humour and his mash-ups of classical art and graffiti.  Spray paint, stencils and dripping paint will make for exciting prints.  Guaranteed to please John-Charles de Castelbajac, Vivienne Westwood, and denim lines like Diesel and Miss Sixty.

Giovanni Boldini

Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931) was an Italian portrait painter known as the 'Master of Swish' due to his flowing style of painting.  His work has some impressionist influence, but he is most often compared to fellow portraitist John SInger Sargent. He became the most fashionable portrait painter of the late 19th century in Paris.  His work can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and the National Portrait Gallery in London but the majority of his paintings remain in private collections (due to the fact that they were mainly commissioned).

As a painter of society portraits, Boldini painted the chicest dresses of his time.  His ability to render fabrics was breathtaking. The Colour, the shimmer and the movement are beautiful.  His work influences fashion designers today, most notably John Galliano.  His subjects are also inspiring, including fashion icons like the Marchesa Casati whom he painted on more than one occasion.

Portrait of the Marchesa Luisa Casati With A Greyhound

Portrait of Rita De Acosta Lydig

Portrait of Madame Josephina Alvear De Errazuriz

Portrait of Mrs. Howard Johnston

The Black Sash

Portrait of Giovinetta Errazuriz

May Exhibitions

Current museum exhibitions can be good clues into what designers will be presenting come next season.  This month, we selected the following art and design exhibits:

Vassily Kandinksy at the Centre Pompidou, Paris

A retrospective of Kandinsky's work in chronological order.  100 paintings, plus drawings and sketches from the three biggest collections of his work: the Pompidou, the Guggenheim in New York, and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus of Munich.  As one of the first abstract painters of the 20th century, Kandinsky revolutionized modern art.

Expect designers to be inspired by his dynamism, energy, and strong primary colour palette.  Abstract and graphic prints are evident as well.

The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

This fashion exhibition explores the relationship between high fashion and fashion models in the latter half of the 20th century.  Model's such as Suzy Parker, Twiggy, Marisa Berenson, and Kate Moss were able to personify their eras.  The connection of the model to the photographer, designer and society as a whole is expressed with reproductions of various iconographic fashion moments.  These include the William Klein's 1966 movie Qui ête-vous, Polly Maggoo? and the Richard Prince and Marc Jacobs collaboration of masked nurses in Louis Vuitton.

Expect designers to be re-inspired by the supermodel of the late 80s, early 90s.  Also, more homages to Alaïa, their favourite designer, whose work was scandalously absent from the exhibition.

 

(sidenote): 

Avedon Fashion 1944-2000 International Center of Photography, New  York

Photographer Richard Avedon revolutionized fashion photography after the Second World War and was the first internationally renowned American fashion photographer.  His style continues to be imitated today.  There are 175 photographs on display from his work at Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and The New Yorker.

Expect designers to be inspired by the energizing glamour of Avedon's photos.  We're hoping for a homage to his 1995 New Yorker feature "In Memory of the Late Mr. and Mrs. Comfort” - a post-apocalyptic fashion story which would his last great narrative.  Taking it in another direction, perhaps an ode to Audrey Hepburn's Funny Face where Fred Astaire's character was largely based on Avedon.

 

"In Memory of the Late Mr. and Mrs. Comfort" 1995

Tamara de Lempicka

Looking over the catalogue of an important sale of Impressionist and Modern Art happening this week at Sotheby's New York, we stopped on Tamara de Lempicka's paintings.  She was the most popular portrait painters of her time.  Her work serves as a continual reference in the fashion world.  

She led a fascinating life.  Born into an upper-class Polish Family, she was educated in Switzerland and spent her teenage years in St Petersburg, Russia.  During the Russian Revolution, she and her husband fled the country, moving around Europe until finally settling in Paris. There, her "soft cubism" style developed in tandem with the Art Deco movement.  She led an exciting life in Paris in the 20s, socializing with Picasso and Cocteau, and having many affairs with men and women.  

Her catalogue of work is very vast, so today we will only feature the collection of Wolfgang Joop, being auctioned at Sotheby's this week.  Something to revisit, for sure...

Portrait de Marjorie Ferry  1932

Portrait de Mademoiselle Poum Rachou  1933

Le Téléphone II  1930