de Staël’s Arcadia

Art x Fashion Edit #27

As one might guess, I am consuming a pretty consistent amount of art. And by pretty consistent, I mean particularly large. Consequently, I have learned to differentiate famous and unknown art, what the art ecosystem labels as good and bad art, and lastly, what I like and not like.

It is therefore no surprise that I end up being indifferent to a lot of the art I see. There a few exhibitions that are worth my praise, and even fewer that actually move me. And that is why the exhibit about Nicolas de Staël at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris is outstanding.

Rarely have I ever been so emotional in front of paintings, several times along the show. As Pierre Was, one of the curators of the show underlines, seeing his work through a screen does not do them justice. De Staël’s paintings have a form of enveloping physicality, whatever the format.

The painter is mostly recognized for his abstract work, but a comprehensive study of his production demonstrates he has always been grounded in figurative references. The reality is that de Staël is one of the rare painters for whom this does not even really matter.

The way the painting is applied, worked through, added, reworked creates a staggering materiality. Using bold colors and creating vivid planes, de Staël’s mobilizes all the senses and their memory creating overwhelming waves of melancholia, amazement, excitement and calmness.

De Staël does not paint the world the way he sees it, like so many have done before him, he paints the way he feels it. To pay hommage to the assault on the senses created by his paintings, I imagined a bold, colorful and eye-catching outfit that makes one feel overly confident…