Concurrent exhibitions are being held to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the first collection of Yves Saint Laurent by six leading museums in an unprecedented tribute from the art world to the late French fashion designer.
Events in museums, including the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, will reveal how the famous fashion designer drew inspiration from some of the 20th century’s greatest artists including Picasso, Matisse, and Mondrian.
Mona Mekouar, who organized the multicentre event that will feature the designer’s works placed in the context of each institution’s permanent collections, said the participation of some of France’s largest and most famous museums was unprecedented.
“I thought it would be impossible to convince several museums of our idea, but they were all very interested and excited from the start. This is the first time they are all working together on one project,” McCuar said.
“Saint Laurent was very inspired by art and this illustrates the connections and dialogue between his work and the museum exhibits. We didn’t want to put the clothes in a room, we wanted them there among the permanent collections.
In this way, visitors will rediscover these collections at the same time as paying tribute to Yves Saint Laurent. It’s like a cultural archipelago.”
Saint Laurent, who died in 2008 at the age of 71, was just 26 years old when he founded his haute couture house with businessman Pierre Bergé in December 1961. He had moved to Paris nine years earlier where his designs gained rapid attention and he was introduced to Christian Dior, then a giant in the fashion world.
Yves Saint Laurent made his first haute couture show on January 29, 1962.
“I think that the work of a fashion designer is very similar to that of an artist. In fact, I have constantly found inspiration in the works of contemporary painters: Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian,” Saint Laurent later said.
“Always influenced by painting, I owe my July 1966 collection to American painters like Wesselmann and Roy Lichtenstein. All my clothes were lit by landscapes, moons, and sunlight.”
“How can I resist the pop art that was an expression of my youth.”
The six museums taking part in Yves Saint Laurent Aux Musées, which runs from 29 January to 15 May, are the Center Pompidou, the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, the Musée du Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Musée Picasso and the Musée Yves Saint Laurent.
Each will contain different aspects of Saint Laurent’s work. At the Louvre there will be some of his most extraordinary attire, including jackets embroidered with gold and crystals. At the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Saint Laurent designs will recreate the colors of artists Pierre Bonnard and Raoul Dufy. The Musée d’Orsay will feature some of the evening wear he created for the Proust Ball to celebrate the 100th birthday of the writer whose guests dressed as Saint Laurent such as Baron Guy de Rothschild and Jane Birkin.
A total of 50 Saint Laurent creations will be on display as part of the exhibition as well as some 300 designs. At the Yves Saint Laurent Museum, visitors will be taken through the creative process from sketch to ready-to-wear.
Macquarie spoke of Saint Laurent’s “dialogue” between “art and literature” and said the designer expressed “a whole artistic world” through his creations.
“It was not just one group but his work throughout his life was related to art. It is about looking at Saint Laurent from an art perspective. Both Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé were great art collectors and that had a huge impact on the fashion designs,” said McQuarr.
“I guess he would never have said he’s an artist, but today with the connections between art and fashion I think we can see Saint Laurent as a creative artist.”
Madison Cox, the American garden designer, who married Bergé shortly before the latter’s death in 2017, and is president of the Pierre Bergé Foundation – Yves Saint Laurent, said the exhibition was an extraordinary showcase for “one of France’s greatest innovators of fashion”.
“For Yves Saint Laurent, fine art has been an inexhaustible source of inspiration, embracing all cultures throughout history. This constant dialogue has been a key element in the designer’s ingenuity and boundless creativity,” Cox wrote.