The connections between fashion and art have fascinated researchers and critics of both these creative fields for years. Contemporary designers often draw inspiration from painters and artists who are part of the current art movement or who represent past decades and bygone centuries.
This year's exhibition at Madrid's Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum is dedicated to a great Spanish tailor as well as equally great painters who created their works from the 16th to the 20th century.
"Balenciaga and Spanish Painting" is an intertextual exhibition that explores the creative factors of one of the greatest fashion creators and finds connections with Spanish art from the last five hundred years. Who was Balenciaga? The exhibition is dedicated to one of the best fashion designers of the 20th century. Cristóbal Balenciaga went down in history as a wonderful dressmaker who could fascinate not only his excellent clients but also other great creators, such as Christian Dior or Hubert de Givenchy.
What inspired Balenciaga? The exhibition reveals the world of the great fashion designer
What will we see at the exhibition, in which the main character is Cristóbal Balenciaga? The Madrid exhibition shows, on the one hand, the classics of fashion, and on the other, an original correlation between his projects and the works of such Spanish painters as Zurbarán, Velázquez, Goya, Zuloaga, and Picasso. How is this possible? Exhibition curators have combined clergy's habits, noble cloaks, tunics, vestments, and coats from paintings with Balenciaga's designs. It turns out that in this way, you can find many correlations between the fashion of past centuries and what the Basque designer was creating just a few decades ago.
Balenciaga never hid that his inspiration for creating his famous designs was sought in every field, including Spanish painting. He analyzed and looked at the clothes immortalized in the works of great masters, and then reproduced their motifs in his dresses, coats, and cloaks, which quickly gained fame and applause among wealthy clients.
Cristóbal Balenciaga and pride of Spanish roots
Cristóbal Balenciaga emphasized his pride in his origins and Spanish roots throughout his life. Although he moved to Paris at a fairly young age to pursue fashion creation at a global level, Spain always occupied the most important place in his life. The reach for the heritage of Spanish painting is the best proof of this. However, not only painting was an inspiration for him. Also, culture, color, Spanish fashion, and places that remained in his memory from childhood had a huge impact on the projects that gained such popularity.
Spanish painting works are, however, the most tangible inspiration that influenced the master's work. No wonder that the famous English fashion photographer, Cecil Beaton, once gave him the nickname "Picasso of fashion". Indeed, Balenciaga, like Picasso once, revolutionized the field in which he created, and the Madrid exhibition will allow you to take a close look at his achievements and his unquestionable talent in creating fashion.
The "Balenciaga and Spanish Painting" exhibition can be viewed from June 18 to September 22, 2019.
