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The artistic idyll between Chanel and Picasso arrives in Madrid

2022-10-11T10:34:56.398Z


The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum draws a parallel between the painter from Malaga and the French designer. Clothes, oil paintings and disparate objects inhabit an exhibition that is part of the festivities for the 50th anniversary of the artist's death


The spark between two geniuses was lit in the spring of 1917. Coco Chanel, a tireless creator capable of destroying the corsets on the female silhouette of the previous decade, was already laying the foundations for her future empire with the opening of her first stores in Deauville and Biarritz.

“A new world was ending and another was about to be born.

I was there, an opportunity was offered to me and I took advantage of it”, he would tell Paul Morand for his book

From him El aire de Chanel

.

It is not surprising that on the other side of that chance was Pablo Picasso, whose works were already on the rise and whose Parisian circle included colleagues such as André Breton or Gertrude Stein.

One of the feats of the Malaga native that year would be to design the scenery for the ballet

Parade

for her friend Jean Cocteau, to whom Chanel would go in the company of the couple formed by José María and Misia Sert.

That was the seed of a friendship that has been written about on multiple occasions, but that had never before been the subject of an artistic exhibition.

It has been achieved by the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid with

Picasso/Chanel,

which can be seen until January 15, 2023, an exhibition that forms part of the exhibitions that celebrate the Year of Picasso, which commemorates the 50th anniversary of the artist's death.

The exhibition is a tribute where fashion and art come together in an interesting dialogue.

A selection of 65 works by the painter coexist with five dozen pieces from the French house, largely from his heritage, but also from private collections, some of them unpublished for the general public to date.

Divided into four sections, it covers Chanel's link with cubism –the designer explored the straight line and composition through planes, something that breaks with the volumetric sumptuousness linked to

belle époque -,

the figure of Olga Khokhlova - the artist's first wife, until 1935 - and the two projects that both shared in their years of friendship.

More information

A spy named Coco Chanel

"Cocteau and Misia Sert introduced Coco to Parisian art circles, where Picasso was already a frequent figure," says Paula Luengo, curator of the exhibition and head of the museum's Exhibition Area.

"They would soon strike up a friendship, to the point that Olga ended up being a regular client of the designer, and the artist himself would be in charge of collaborating with her on several projects."

The first of them would be the adaptation in 1922 of the Greek tragedy

Antigone

, directed by Charles Dullin and with an extremely experimental staging.

The work would premiere in December of that same year at the L'Atelier theater in Montmartre, with a set by Picasso in ultramarine blue and Doric columns painted on canvas.

Chanel would be responsible for the wardrobe, although the disappearance of the original pieces has forced it to be recreated with models of similar inspiration or pieces such as the exceptional vessel from 380 BC on loan from the British Museum.

"We spent two weeks working on an extensive letter to London, so that they would understand why we needed a vessel of Antigone appearing before Creon in an exhibition about Picasso and Chanel," commented the museum's artistic director, Guillermo, at the opening of the exhibition on Monday. Solarium.

"But we ended up being convincing."

The 'Chanel/Picasso' exhibition will remain open from October 11 to January 15, 2023. Luis Millan (EFE)

The second collaboration between the two would come with

The Blue Train

, a danced operetta that premiered in 1924 with the production of Sergei Diaghilev, founder of the Russian Ballets.

Jean Cocteau's libretto was an acid look at the Parisian bourgeoisie, covered by scenes of the beach and recreation, whose title was due to the luxury express that linked the French capital with the Costa Brava.

In the exhibition you can see uniforms for tennis players and swimmers designed by Chanel, a video of a performance from 1992 and even the

original

gouache

Two women running on the beach

by Picasso, which would be used as an image for the work's curtain.

Chanel evening dress in yellow velvet from the private collection of Martin Kramer (Switzerland).Christin Lostra (Museo Thyssen Bornemisza)

"When Coco Chanel said that fashion goes out of fashion, but style remains, it was by no means an empty phrase," Chanel Heritage Director Hélène Fulgence pointed out at the opening of the exhibition.

"She spoke of going against the canons that prevail in a period to create something that revolutionizes us as a society, and that is precisely what linked her to Picasso."

His words make it easier to understand the choice between a sample of a bottle of fragrance No. 5 —“a complex and vibrant perfume, presented in an austere bottle named after the number of the sample chosen in the laboratory”— or a small handbag in silk crepe, traversed by square figures in a trompe l'oeil.

“The fabrics in many cases could be modest,

One of the first visitors to the 'Picasso/Chanel' exhibition at the Thyssen Museum, on October 10, 2022, in Madrid.

Luis Millan (EFE)

Picasso/Chanel

is one more step in the Thyssen's link to fashion, an industry that certain museums regard with disdain and to which it, in contrast, has devoted itself unreservedly in shows such as

Hubert de Givenchy

(2014),

Sorolla and fashion

(2018) or

Balenciaga and Spanish painting

(2019).

In Chanel's legacy it is not new to be the subject of an exhibition, since since her death in 1971 there have been multiple and disparate exhibitions dedicated to the woman who struck down the corsets of the female silhouette to weave a new freedom in dressing her.

Of all of them, the most extraordinary of hers to date was the one that the Metropolitan Museum of New York dedicated to her in 2005. But never before had her figure been sewn together with that of another of the cultural titans of the time of she.

For this reason alone,

Picasso/Chanel

already starts from a premise as disruptive as the minds of its protagonists, who bid farewell to the exhibition with their open hands portrayed, respectively, by Nick de Morgoli and Andre Kertész.

A man visits the "Picasso/Chanel" exhibition that explores the relationship of two great creators of the 20th century: Pablo Picasso and Gabrielle Chanel shown at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid.

Luis Millan (EFE)

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Source: elparis

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