Showing posts with label Musee des Art Decoratifs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Musee des Art Decoratifs. Show all posts

Monday, February 27, 2012

What's on the Fashion Calendar for March

March offers a number of exciting museum exhibitions related to fashion. The host cities span the globe:  from Los Angeles to Paris and between.

Peggy Moffitt wearing Rudi Gernreich
Photo from MOCA West Hollywood (Pacific Centre)
The Total Look: The Creative Collaboration between Rudi Gernreich, Peggy Moffitt, and William Claxton opened this past weekend in Los Angeles at the MOCA West Hollywood Pacific Centre. This exhibition celebrates the collaboration between fashion designer Rudi Gernreich, his model and muse Peggy Moffitt, and Moffitt's late husband, the photographer William Claxton, who created the distinctive images of Moffitt activating Gernreich's designs. The exhibition features selected looks from Moffitt's definitive collection, with films and photographs by Claxton of Moffitt modeling the clothes. "Fashion will go out of fashion" is one of Gernreich's many memorable declarations, but his designs continue to resonate, and still look modern 50 years after they were made. This exhibition will run until May 20, 2012.


Untitled #225, Cindy Sherman 1990
MOMA
A retrospective of the work of American photographer Cindy Sherman opened this past week at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. This exhibition traces her career from the mid-1970s to the present, bringing together 171 key photographs from the artist’s significant series—including the complete ―Untitled Film Stills (1977–80), centerfolds (1981), and history portraits (1988–90)—plus examples from all of her most important bodies of work, ranging from her fashion photography of the early 1980s to the breakthrough sex pictures of 1992 to her 2003–04 clowns and monumental society portraits from 2008. In addition, the exhibition features the American premiere of her 2010 photographic mural. Of special note is a gallery devoted to her work made for the fashion industry which showcases her commissions from 1983 to 2011. The exhibition runs until June 11, 2012, but if you cannot make it, the MOMA website offers an interactive digital gallery here.


Prada coat 1994-95 for The Sea at the Phoenix Art Museum 
On March 3, 2012, the Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona will present The Sea in the Ellman Fashion Design Gallery. This exhibition explores the far-reaching influence of the romance of the sea on fashion design and includes ensembles from the 19th century to the present time, including Emilio Pucci, Emanuel Ungaro and Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel. This exhibit runs until July 15, 2012.


Marc Jacobs at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs
Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs will open at Musee des Arts Decoratifs on March 9, 2012. This exhibition tells the stories of two men of fashion, separated by a century, Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs, and will highlight their contributions to the fashion world. Designed to be an analysis rather than a retrospective, this parallel Vuitton-Jacobs comparison is intended to provide new insight into the fashion system during its pivotal periods, beginning with its industrialisation and ending with its globalisation, focussing also on its artistic professions and crafts, technological advances, stylistic creations and artistic collaborations.



The Art of Kuboku and Hisako Takaku
at the San Diego Museum of Fine Art
San Diego Museum of Fine Art in California presents an exhibition called Dyeing Elegance: Asian Modernism and the Art of KÅ«boku and Hisako Takaku which opened earlier this month. The artist Kuboku Takaku (1908–1993) perfected the ancient Japanese technique of wax-resist dyeing to create textile paintings on obi, kimono, and screens, merging cubist and modernist styles.  His daughter Hisako (born 1944) is now one of the last living artists who preserves the knowledge of this painstaking dyeing technique, and her obi and kimono continue to be among the most chic and sought-after throughout Japan. In this exhibition 71 obi, kimono, and other textile paintings of Kuboku and Hisako Takaku have been borrowed from museums and collectors and are on display outside of Japan for the first time.

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All text and images on this blog are the copyright of Ingrid Mida, unless otherwise noted. The copying of posts, images and/or text without proper attribution is violation of copyright and legal action will be pursued.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Christian Lacroix: On Fashion


Talent does not always equate to success in the worlds of art and fashion. And yesterday, one of the greatest fashion talents Christian Lacroix staged what is likely his last haute couture collection at the Musee des Art Decoratifs in Paris. Forced into receivership in May, Lacroix has been looking for a buyer to rescue the fashion house and unless he finds one, the beautiful clothing shown yesterday will likely never go into production.

That prompted me to pull out the book "Christian Lacroix: On Fashion" from my library of fashion and art books. This exquisite book is filled with pages and pages of gorgeous haute couture confections, some of which look as if they could have been worn in the 18th century. And perhaps in this world of casual dress where people wear jeans to the opera, Lacroix's talent was not sufficiently appreciated.

I was particularly taken with a chapter of the book called Cobwebs where Lacrois says "From sketch to dress, from fabric to lace, thread is another running theme. It is both a motif and a form of writing; the bare bones of fashion, a glittering spider's web that has no wrong side or right side when it becomes a transparent dress." (page 171).


I've been researching spider webs myself for my artwork (spider webs are nature's lace!) and I will be posting images of how I've integrated this into my fashion plates later this week. Needless to say, I found Lacroix's work breath-taking in conception and execution.

Title: Christian Lacroix, On Fashion
Text by: Christian Lacroix, Patrick Mauries and Olivier Saillard
Photographs by Gregoire Alexandre
Publisher: Thames and Hudson, 2007
Price: USA $65 Canada $71.50

Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Chair Gallery at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs


Chairs can have incredible personality.
Their lines and shapes can be as expressive as a haute couture dress. While visiting the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, I was enchanted by their extensive collection of chairs.

The chair, which can be either an instrument of comfort or torture, conveyed the status of the person who was invited to or allowed to sit in it. For example, in the 18th century, there was a rigid protocol in the French court for who was allowed to sit in the presence of royalty.

Over time, stylistic trends in chairs have evolved to reflect the societal, political and aesthetic morays of any given period. Those types of changes were beautifully displayed in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs chair gallery.


Throughout the museum, there were many interesting examples of unusual chairs including this terribly uncomfortable looking Medevial chair dated 1540-1560 from Florence.


This set of chairs were also dated to the 16th century and were chairs designed for Fountainbleu using Italian artisans brought to France by Francoise I.


Photo credits: Ingrid Mida, 2009

The Musee des Arts Decoratifs is filled with eclectic treasures including jewelery, glass, ceramics, furniture, and other ornamental and decorative objects. The Musee de la Mode et du Textile is housed in the same facility but was not open during my visit.

Musee des Arts Decoratifs
Palais du Louvre
107 Rue de Rivoli
75001