From Picasso to Proust, celebration of Yves Saint Laurent at six Paris museums highlights art and literature’s influence on his fashion
- Sixty years after the French fashion designer held his first catwalk show, museums from the Louvre to the Centre Pompidou are looking back at his career
- In different ways they show the bond Saint Laurent’s work had with art and literature, from his homage to Piet Mondrian to his passion for writer Marcel Proust
In an unprecedented move, six of Paris’ most prestigious museums have come together to celebrate the legacy of Yves Saint Laurent.
Called Yves Saint Laurent aux Musées, the collaborative project marks the 60th anniversary of the first Yves Saint Laurent catwalk show, on January 29, 1962, just a month after the Paris fashion house was established.
The six exhibitions each highlight a different aspect of the late designer’s prolific career, with the installations pairing some of his most celebrated creations with artefacts in the host museum’s permanent collection. Overall, the project highlights the strong bond Saint Laurent’s work had with art and literature.
One of the most influential designers of the 20th century, Saint Laurent, who was born in Algeria to French parents, was only 26 when he established his eponymous fashion house, having teamed up with long-time life and business partner Pierre Bergé.
Saint Laurent was one of the first designers to bring art to life in his creations. His autumn/winter 1965 collection, which paid homage to Piet Mondrian, incorporated the artist’s two-dimensional paintings into clothes, giving the artwork a three-dimensional quality.
This dialogue with artists continued throughout his career, with Saint Laurent paying tribute to Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Pierre Bonnard, Fernand Léger, Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso.
A collector of antiques, Saint Laurent amassed many Greek black- and red-figure vases, Bambara sculptures, and Japanese and Chinese art. He was the first living fashion designer to be honoured with a retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, in 1983.
Saint Laurent’s involvement with the artistic movements of the 20th century is on full display at the Centre Pompidou and the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, France’s pre-eminent modern art institutions, while his relationship with Picasso, the leading artistic figure of the 20th century, is at the core of the works on show at the Musée Picasso.
The sumptuous Galerie d’Apollon, at the Louvre, showcases Saint Laurent’s love for gold and the decorative arts, while his passion for writer Marcel Proust, author of In Search of Lost Time (published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927), is explored at the nearby Musée d’Orsay.
Rarely seen pieces from the archives of the fashion house, showing the designer’s creative journey and the steps involved in the production of couture garments, are on view at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris, which opened in 2017 to celebrate the couturier’s body of work.
“Yves Saint Laurent aux Musées” can be seen at Centre Pompidou, Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Musée Picasso and Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris until May 15.
