Pierre Cardin: past, present and future
(Pierre Cardin: passado, presente e futuro)

For the first time, MASP exhibits its complete collection of clothing from Rhodia, with clothes created from the collaboration between artists and stylists in the 1960s. The collection of 79 pieces, selected by Pietro Maria Bardi (1900-1999), director- founder of the museum, was donated in 1972 by Rhodia. The French chemical industry promoted its synthetic threads in Brazil through show-shows, editorials and fashion collections, in a strategy developed by Lívio Rangan (1933-1984), the company’s visionary advertising manager. The show-parades, held between 1960 and 1970, seemed more like shows and brought together professionals from the theater, dance, music and visual arts. Presented at the National Textile Industry Fair (Fenit), the biggest fashion event of the time, the fashion shows show up to 150 pieces,

The MASP collection is the only remaining set of this production and includes pieces from different collections. The clothes are unique pieces, made to measure and only for the promotion of the brand. Rangan, attentive to international fashion in the 1960s, one of the most revolutionary periods in the history of fashion, brought information that was reprocessed with Brazilian references, in an articulation of works by artists and stylists. The choice of artists by Rangan revealed the interest in dialoguing with contemporary art of the moment and reflected the main trends in art and fashion. The show-shows had an extraordinary media force, thanks also to the participation of renowned artists and Brazilian musicians, important levers in the national fashion chain.

The MASP group includes artists who worked with geometric abstraction, such as Willys de Castro (1926-1988), Hércules Barsotti (1914-2010), Antonio Maluf (1926-2005), Waldemar Cordeiro (1925-1973) and Alfredo Volpi ( 1896-1988); with informal abstraction, such as Manabu Mabe (1924-1997) and Antonio Bandeira (1922-1967); with popular Brazilian references, such as Carybé (1911-1997), Aldemir Martins (1922-2006), Lula Cardoso Ayres (1910-1987), Heitor dos Prazeres (1898-1966), Manezinho Araújo (1910-1993), Gilvan Samico ( 1928-2013), Francisco Brennand and Carmélio Cruz; and others associated with a strand of pop art, such as Nelson Leirner and Carlos Vergara.

The MASP Rhodia collection is a fundamental collection to see the creative potential of collaboration between art, fashion, design and industry, and which remains unique and unsurpassed in Brazil. That serves as inspiration for creativity and new discussions in the current moment in fashion.

List of artists: Aldemir Martins, Alfredo Volpi, Antonio Bandeira, Antonio Maluf, Carlos Vergara, Carmélio Cruz, Carybé, Danilo Di Prete, Fernando Lemos, Fernando Martins, Francisco Brennand, Genaro de Carvalho, Gilvan Samico, Glauco Rodrigues, Hércules Barsotti, Hermelindo Fiaminghi, Isabel Pons, Ivan Serpa, João Suzuki, José Carlos Marques, Kenishi Kaneko, Licínio de Almeida, Lívio Abramo, Luigi Zanotto, Lula Cardoso Ayres, Manabu Mabe, Manezinho Araújo, Maria Bonomi, Moacyr Rocha, Nelson Leirner, Tikashi Fukushima , Tomoshigue Kusuno, Waldemar Cordeiro and Willys de Castro.

CURATOR Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director, MASP; Patricia Carta, deputy curator of fashion, MASP; Tomás Toledo, curator, MASP.

Images courtesy of MASP.