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Yves Saint-Laurent, the artist
The
virtuoso of haute couture, the creator, the colourist, the
marvellous Yves Saint-Laurent. You suspect that we return from the
exhibition Yves Saint-Laurent at the Montréal Museum of Fine
Arts who presents a forty-year retrospective of the Maison Haute
Couture Yves Saint-Laurent, underlining the innovative character of
his work that has definitely influenced the history, strongly
inspired by famous artists of his time.
Elegance, movement, dynamism! A creator who gave agility to women,
who accentuated the shapes of their body, who dared the change, with
elegance and beauty. He was a revolutionist of his kind; he was the
one who introduced the pantsuit… so women could get into the men’s
world with elegance and comfort.
His
journeys came down to look at pictures of different countries and
let his mind roamed and his hands draw innumerable sketches inspired
by these images. Few lines and you could see a dress emerged to the
tendencies of India, Japan, Africa, Spain or Russia. And the hats!
Yves Saint-Laurent was dressing the woman from head to foot,
choosing the proper hat, sometimes extravagant; the sober shoe or
the boot which would be epoch-making; jewels that will round off the
outfit with audacity or delicacy.
How
colourful too! My memories were with black, the preferred colour of
Yves Saint-Laurent. But still there he put his mark, juxtaposing the
red and the orange; the blue and the black; the pink and the green.
He turned the range of colours upside down, he dared.
And
this man, who in his young age would have liked to create costumes
for the theatre, showed all his flamboyance while paying homage to
the artists he admired: a jacket inspired of the irises and
sunflowers of Van Gogh, day dresses “à la” Mondrian, evening dresses
where Braque, Warhol, Matisse and Picasso would have recognized
their works.
A
spectacular work that of Yves Saint-Laurent. Rich, inspiring, the
work of an artist, a creator where the line, the colour, the
imagination take the place entirely.
To see at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts until September 28, 2008.
July 18, 2008 |
