Painting is like silent poem, said Simonides, poet from ancient Greece.Paintings are icons, doors to the Platonian world above the heavens. Paintings on my blog are just those icons, which lead a viewer into the magic world of harmony and beauty. Artists who present their achievements on my blog have a very different cultural and national background, they represent variety of artistic traditions and schools
Chanel presents Egyptian-themed collection around The Met's Temple of Dendur
"An ancient Egyptian temple at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art provided the setting for Chanel's latest catwalk show, when the French fashion house debuted a collection featuring glittering tweeds, golden garments and bold jewels. The catwalk looped The Met's Temple of Dendur – an Ancient Egyptian monument completed in 10BC – to create an appropriate setting for the debut of Chanel's 2018/19 Métiers d'art collection earlier this week. With a taste for elaborate shows, creative director Karl Lagerfeld chose the decorative sandstone temple to provide the backdrop for the presentation, as well as inform the Egyptian-style aesthetic of the pieces. "Egyptian civilisation has always fascinated me: I get inspired by an idea, which I make a reality," said Lagerfeld in a project statement. Floating regal garments, bold geometric prints and lavishly colourful accessories featured throughout the collection, along with plenty of golden garments in sparkling, shimmering and crackled textures. Beige, white and black tweeds – a Chanel staple – are threaded with mohair, gold and beaded cotton. "I think the image of this collection is very much down to this refinement which should be seen close up, almost touched, to understand how it is done and to really appreciate the beauty of this work," said Lagerfeld, who also drew on the antiquities for pieces in his first sculptural exhibition. Other motifs included the Ancient Egyptian scarab beetle, which can be seen a necklace, buttons, belt buckle, earrings and handbags, while the models' makeup resembled the Eye of Horus. American music producer Pharrell Williams – who is set to collaborate with Chanel – was adorned with the facial marking while modelling baggy gold trousers and a bejewelled jumper. Other features of this year's garments were intended asa nod to New York, including street-art-style graphics on printed t-shirts, and a patched denim two-piece worn by model Kaia Gerber. "New York, it's an energy and a melting pot of cultures, it's very stimulating," said Lagerfeld."(Dezeen - youtube )
Rei Kawakubo (b. 1942) is a Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. She is the founder of Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market. In recognition of the notable design contributions of Kawakubo, an exhibition of her designs entitled Rei Kawakubo/Commes des Garçons, Art of the In-Between opened on May 5, 2017 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City Rei Kawakubo was born on 11 October 1942 in Tokyo. Her early life in Japan was summarized by Judith Thurman in a New Yorker article from 2005 stating: "She was the oldest of her parents' three children and their only daughter... Their father was an administrator at Keio University, a prestigious institution founded by the great Meiji educator and reformer Fukuzawa Yukichi, a champion of Western culture and, according to Kawakubo, of women's rights."Although not formally trained as a fashion designer, Kawakubo did study fine arts and literature at Keio University. As reported by Thurman, "In 1960, Kawakubo enrolled in her father's university and took a degree in 'the history of aesthetics', a major that included the study of Asian and Western art."After graduation in 1964, Kawakubo worked in the advertising department at the textile company, Ashai Kasei and she went on to work as a freelance stylist in 1967. Two years later, she began to design and make her own clothes under the label Comme des Garçons, French for "like some boys", before incorporating the label in 1973.
n 1973, she established her own company, Comme des Garçons Co. Ltd in Tokyo and opened up her first boutique there in 1975. Starting out with women's clothes, Kawakubo added a men's line in 1978. Three years later, she started presenting her fashion lines in Paris each season, opening up a boutique in Paris in 1982. Comme des Garçons specialises in anti-fashion, austere, sometimes deconstructed garments. Before the end of her first decade with Comme de Garcons in 1982, Kawakubo began to express her dissatisfaction with the early direction of some of her design ideas stating: "Three years ago I became dissatisfied with what I was doing. I felt I should be doing something more directional, more powerful. In fashion we had to get away from the influence of what had been done in the 1920s or the 1930s. We had to get away from the folkloric. I decided to start from zero, from nothing, to do things that have not been done before, things with a strong image."
By 1980, CDG had flourished and according to Thurman, "had a hundred and fifty franchised shops across Japan, eighty employees, and annual revenues of thirty million dollars." During the 1980s, her garments were primarily in black, dark grey or white. The emphasis on black clothing led to the Japanese press describing Kawakubo and her followers as 'The Crows'. The materials were often draped around the body and featured frayed, unfinished edges along with holes and a general asymmetrical shape. Challenging the established notions of beauty she created an uproar at her debut Paris fashion show where journalists labeled her clothes 'Hiroshima chic' amongst other things. Since the late 1980s, her colour palette has grown somewhat. Kawakubo likes to have input in all the various aspects of her business, rather than just focusing on clothes and accessories. She is greatly involved in graphic design, advertising, and shop interiors believing that all these things are a part of one vision and are inextricably linked. Her Aoyama, Tokyo, store is known for its sloping glass facade decorated with blue dots. This was designed in collaboration between Rei and architect Future Systems and interior designer Takao Kawasaki.Kawakubo published her own bi-annual magazine, 'Six' (standing for 'sixth sense'), in the early 1990s. It featured very little text and consisted mainly of photographs and images that she deemed inspiring.[9] In 1996 Rei was guest editor of the high art publication Visionaire. Kawakubo is known to be quite reclusive and media shy, preferring her innovative creations to speak for themselves. Prior to 2002, Kawakubo has continued support for the use of LGBT references and cultural themes in the photography used in her advertisement and marketing campaigns promoting her clothing and accessories.
Since 2003, Kawakubo has been referenced and cited by other major designers for her originality and contribution to fashion and design marked by a nationally broadcast program of interviews concerning her work by NHK (Japan Broadcasting Company). During the interviews broadcast, Alexander McQueen stated: "When Kawakubo designs a collection, it seems kind of absurd, not just to the general public. But when you watch someone's challenging themselves like she does every season, it makes you understand why you are in fashion in the first place because of people like her." During the same broadcast, Viktor & Rolf added: "The first time we became aware of Comme de Garcons was in the 80s. I think we were 12 or 13. It made a very strong impression because fashion in general was something that we were starting to discover and Rei Kawakubo was part of this ... an enormous outburst of creativity in the beginning of the 80s. So for us she was part of the way we started to think about fashion."Two other early supporters of Kawakubo were Jean-Paul Gaultier and Donna Karan. During the NHK broadcast for Kawakubo, Gaultier stated: "I believe that Kawakubo is a woman with extreme courage. She is a person with exceptional strength. Moreover, she has a poetic spirit. When I see her creations, I feel the spirit of a young girl. A young girl who still has innocence and is a bit romantic. Yet she also has an aspect of a fighting woman, one who fears nothing as she thrusts forward." During the same broadcast of interviews in Japan, Donna Karan added: "Rei Kawakubo is a very interesting designer to me as a woman and a female designer. As a person, she is very quiet and rather withdrawn, yet her clothes make such an enormous statement."Wikipedia
Kansai Yamamoto (February 8, 1944) is one of the leaders in Japanese Contemporary fashion, in particular during the 1970s and 1980s.Kansai was born in 1944 in Yokohama, Japan. After studying civil engineering and English at Nippon University, got a so-en prise at Bunka Fashion College in 1967.Among the designers with whom he apprenticed are Junko Koshino and Hisashi Hosono; in 1971, he opened his own company, Yamamoto Kansai Company, Ltd., Tokyo. His first collection debuted in London in 1971 and in the USA at Hess's Department Store in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which was renowned for many avant-garde collections. His 1975 debut in Paris was followed by the opening of his Kansai Boutique in 1977.In 1999, he and Junko Koshino renewed the kimono, reviving interest in this classical fashion. He is also known for his avant-garde kimono designs, including ones worn by David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust Tour.In 1999 he organized a fashion program under the aegis of the India-Japan Mixed Cultural Cooperation Committee.Since 2001, he has been known for his fashion eyewear, sold by Aoyama USA.He is a recipient of the Soen prize at the Bunka College of Fashion (1967) and the Tokyo Fashion Editors award in 1977.In 2008, an exhibit named "Netsuki Shinten: Kansai Genki Shugi" (or "Passionate Exhibit: The Energy Principle of Kansai") was held at the Edo-Tokyo Museum.[3] In 2009, a major retrospective of Yamamoto's work was exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.Yamamoto designed the Skyliner train, unveiled in 2010, that connects Japan's Narita Airport with central Tokyo.In July 2013, he made a comeback to the fashion industry with a showing in the 19th New Britain Mask Festival in Kokopo, Papua New Guinea.Wikipedia
Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist. He first achieved notoriety as part of SAMO, an informal graffiti duo who wrote enigmatic epigrams in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the late 1970s where the hip hop, post-punk, and street art movements had coalesced. By the 1980s, he was exhibiting his neo-expressionist paintings in galleries and museums internationally. The Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his art in 1992. Basquiat's art focused on "suggestive dichotomies", such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience. He appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, and married text and image, abstraction, and figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique. Basquiat used social commentary in his paintings as a "springboard to deeper truths about the individual",as well as attacks on power structures and systems of racism, while his poetics were acutely political and direct in their criticism of colonialism and support for class struggle. He died of a heroin overdose at his art studio at age 27.Wikipedia
Neo-expressionism often explores social commentary and individuality using bold colors and violent, emotive lines, as if the artist threw the paint onto the canvas. Undoubtedly, neo-expressionism has also strongly influenced street art (and vice versa), through the use of crude materials and hasty production
Basquiat's work explores social commentary and dichotomies (such as wealth vs. poverty) through a mix of poetry, painting, and abstraction. Scull is a great representation of his style. Its mix of graffiti creates the powerful impression that the head is full of forms. The face is peeled off in areas, exposing teeth and bone without really showing it. Basquiat's abstract lines and shapes coalesce to form what looks like a skull. This look is inspired by the bold colors and edgy subject matter of Basquiat's work. It's street-inspired fashion to reflect his street art roots. Let the shoes be the star of the show by keeping the rest of your outfit monochromatic. Pair a loose shirt with some skinny jeans or leggings to balance each other out. For a more edgy look, add a strappy bralette to peek out from under the shirt. Accessorize with some cage-shaped rings or a bracelet."(collegefashion.net)
