LENS.- Clothes, attire, and apparel have long been an integral part of the artistic persona: from Rembrandt’s toques and turbans to Vigée-Lebrun’s long shawls; from George Sand dressing as a man to Rodin’s studies for Balzac’s dressing gown and Marcel Duchamp assuming the guise of Rrose Sélavy, and from Sonia Delaunay’s simultaneous dresses to Andy Warhol’s wig… The garments chosen by the artist reveal an identity, and an artistic truth that is both intimate and public. This exhibition examines the ways in which artists are represented, both by themselves and by other artists. What lies behind the choice of a particular outfit? The self-portrait, like the representation of an artist by one of their peers, is a distinct genre that can reveal just as much about an era or an artistic intention as it does about conceptions of the artist’s place in society.


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The exhibition The art of dressing. Dressing like an artist analyses the history of these representations, using paintings, sculptures, and drawings, from the Renaissance to the present day, along with photographs, clothing, and accessories too. With hits 200 works, the exhibition thus proposes an exploration of the history of men’s and women’s fashion, and of the artists themselves, reflecting on what clothing may mean in terms of self- and artistic expression. It revisits moments when a garment became an extension of the artist’s interrogation, when the artist and the attire were one. The exhibition also highlights the many collaborations and crossovers between the worlds of art and fashion, between artists, couturiers, and designers.

The contemporary section of this project sees the exhibition enquire into the ways in which clothes may become works of art in their own right. It highlights artists who take to sewing their paintings and sculptures, those who turn their own everyday clothes into extensions of their work (Niki de Saint Phalle, Yayoi Kusama), those for whom crossdressing is an artistic act (Claude Cahun, Marcel Bascoulard, Grayson Perry), and other artists who make themselves the raw material of their work and who don outfits to perform it. It features artists who fashion collective garments to bring people together (such as Nicola L) and others who revisit traditional dress in spectacular fashion (such as Fujita).

The last few years have seen a proliferation of productive collaborations between creators and designers, the fashion industry, and artists. Showcasing various examples of such collaboration, the exhibition will feature outfits for which historical works and artists provided inspiration, whether to legendary couturiers of the past, like Elsa Schiaparelli or Yves Saint-Laurent, or to designers on the contemporary scene.

Curators:

Olivier Gabet, Director of the Objets d’Arts Department at the Musée du Louvre, Paris Annabelle Ténèze, Director of the Musée du Louvre-Lens
Marie Gord and Audrey Palacin, Research assistants


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