As part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the death of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid is presenting the exhibition “Picasso / Chanel” from October 11th, juxtaposing the fashion of Gabrielle Chanel with selected works by the famous Spanish artist.
The meeting is not accidental: both were contemporaries and indeed worked together twice, both times with Jean Cocteau: on Antigone (1922) and on Serge Diaghilev’s Le Train Bleu (1924) for his Ballets Russes. In addition, the Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova – Picasso’s first wife – was one of Chanel’s most loyal customers. Exploring the relationship between these two 20th-century creative geniuses, the exhibition is divided into four main sections, covering approximately the decade between 1915 and 1925, in chronological order.
The Chanel style and Cubism show numerous parallels, even from Chanel’s first, innovative designs: her preference for using a geometric design language, the restraint of colors and the Cubist aesthetic of the collage, which is expressed in dresses with straight, angular lines for black, white and beige and their use of inexpensive fabrics with severe structures.
In addition to Picasso’s works, various ensembles from the fashion designer’s early days are on display, of which only a few examples have survived. Antigone, a modern adaptation of Sophocles’ play by Cocteau, premiered in Paris in 1922, with sets and masks by Picasso and costumes by Chanel, both inspired by classical Greece, as this section shows.
Le Train Bleu (The Blue Train) is the title of the ballet created by Diaghilev in 1924 with a production design by Cocteau, inspired by sports and swimwear. Two Women Running Along the Beach (The Race), a small gouache that Diaghilev found in Picasso’s studio was transformed into the image for the work’s title page, and the artist also accepted a commission to illustrate the programme. Chanel, a keen sportswoman herself, designed the costumes for the dancers, which were based on the sports outfits she designed for herself and her clients.
The exhibition opens on October 11, 2022 and runs until January 15, 2023.
