Henri Matisse and Yves Saint Laurent never met nor worked together. They couldn’t. Matisse, a celebrated French artist who led the Fauvism movement and helped shape modern 20th century art through his bold use of vibrant colors and expressive drawing, died in 1954 when Saint Laurent was only 18 years old. However, Saint Laurent, who eventually became the legendary French fashion designer, deeply admired Matisse, collected his art, and famously paid tribute to him in his haute couture designs like the Autumn/Winter 1981 collection and many others.
For me, he’s “the” painter. More than Picasso whose genius I don’t doubt, but I love Matisse with his tranquil life and constant exploration of color – said the designer.
Matisse Museum in Nice explores their artistic relationship by curating an exhibition Henri Matisse. Yves Saint Laurent. Beauty. Fashion and Happiness
The links between fashion and the visual arts have been well researched over the past decades and featured in many exhibitions. For Matisse and YSL some similarities lie in their approach to color, light and pattern as well as in the practice of drawing as an integral part of inspiration searching process. But they had much more in common than just that.
Matisse was born in the north of France, where textile industry has been a vital part of local economy, tradition and identity. Fabrics and garments were key props in his paintings, and he soon built a “working library” of cloth samples, often brought back from far away journeys, to dress up his models. He also collected objects that can be repetitively seen in his painting such as flower vases, pots, plates or lamps.
Saint Laurent shared that interest in collecting unique objects and curiosities and was directly inspired by Matisse’s paintings. The best example is the blue dress with puffed sleeves worn by one of his favorite models Lydia Delectorskaya in the portrait painted in 1937. The dress was recreated by YSL in 1981. Lydia herself was a fascinating character with a biography that could provide plots for several Oscar winning films.
Both the dress and the portrait are included in no less than 160 objects – haute couture garments, folk costumes, paintings, sketches, textiles and documents showcased in the Matisse Museum.
The exhibition is structured around several themes illustrating how the artistic paths of the two creators intertwined. One of the themes features the story of a Romanian peasant blouse given to Matisse by his friend and artist, Theodor Pallady. Embraided with floral motifs, it became very fashionable on the Côte d’Azur in the 1930s and appeared in several of Matisse’s works as it was in perfect tune with the artist’s aesthetic of simplicity. 50 years later the garment attracted Saint Laurent’s attention.
In 1981 Yves Saint Laurent took up this iconic textile in an haute couture collection […] thus helping to embed the painter’s work in popular culture. […] He would return to this theme in his Autumn/Winter 1999 collection.
Other themes refer to their shared fascination with the Orient. Matisse discovered Islamic art during his travels in Algeria, Sapin and Morocco and the experience encouraged him to experiment with opulent, brightly colored fabrics in his paintings.
For YSL Marocco eventually became his home. Enchanted with its light, colors and patterns, he settled there in 1980 with his partner, Pierre Berge. Moroccan textile crafts inspired the brightly colored embraided caps from the 1989 collection.
Another area of shared interest for both artists was the design of theatre costumes. Matisse was commissioned by Diaghilev to design costumes for the ballet Chant du Rossignol (The Song of the Nightingale), courtesy of Paul Poiret, who lent him his studio. YSL on the other hand collaborated for many years with the choreographer Roland Petit, for whom he designed costumes inspired by the Orient, aesthetically very similar to the costumes by Léon Bakst for the Ballets Russes of the early 20th century.
To summarize, he exhibition is beautifully curated, sparkles with vibrant colors, bold patterns and indeed vibrates with happiness. It highlights continuity of the artistic explorations run by successive generations of artists, shows how artistic ideas can be transferred from one area of art to another, and how much inspiration can be found in our heritage. It concludes with a confession from Yves Saint Laurent:
Matisse had a decisive influence on my color, because at the beginning I only believed in using black. Today, I believe I handle color brilliantly.
