The Effect of Time
The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, with the support of VTB Bank and the SAFMAR Charitable Foundation, presents the exhibition The Effect of Time: the Influence of the Russian Avant-garde on Contemporary Fashion.
The exhibition explores the long history of interaction between Russian and Western cultures, comparing the heritage of the Russian avant-garde with the collections of leading fashion houses. Visual parallels between the works of art classics of the early twentieth century with modern ready-to-wear costumes not only reveal the influence of the radical artistic movement on popular culture, but also help to trace the modern history of the costume with its characteristic borrowing of cultural codes from different eras.
Ever since the Renaissance, fashion has had a complex system of quotations and metaphors at its disposal, allowing literally to read the costume endowed with the meaning of the text. However, in the twentieth century, the costume tends more towards pure visibility, increasingly resorting to the visual arts as the main source of inspiration. Beginning in the 1960s, designers were carried away by the graphic simplicity of avant-garde works, borrowing clear geometric and abstract shapes, planar compositions, and the absence of direct linear perspective, characteristic, above all, of artists. We can say that the influence of fine art on fashion since that time has reached its maximum – many works of modern couturiers today resemble three-dimensional canvases, sculptures, more endowed with the value of an artifact.
For centuries, the visual arts have served as one of the tools for studying the history of costume. The heritage of painting and graphics, and later photography, gives us an idea of the evolution of ceremonial, military, work and other costumes of different eras. The exhibition “The Effect of Time: the Influence of the Russian Avant-garde on Contemporary Fashion”, on the contrary, turns to the history of art through the works of leading fashion houses that use color and compositional solutions similar to the works of Russian avant-garde artists, often resorting to borrowing recognizable forms, decor details and ornaments.
The exhibition will bring together more than 100 exhibits – ready-to-wear costumes of famous designers, as well as paintings, graphics, porcelain, and other works of the most important artists of the Russian avant-garde from museum and private collections.
Artists: Vesnin Alexander, Vyalov Konstantin, Goncharova Natalia, Delone Sonya, Zdanevich Kirill, Kakabadze David, Klyun Ivan, Krimmer Eduard, Kudryashov Ivan, Kulagina V.N., Lezhe-Khodasevich Nadezhda, Lentulov Aristarkh, Leporskaya Anna, Malevich Kazimir, Matyushin Mikhail, Mayakovskaya Lyudmila, Pakhomov Alexey, Popova Lyubov, Puni Ivan, Redko Kliment, Rodchenko Alexander, Rozhdestvensky Konstantin, Rozanova Olga, Stepanova Varvara, Suetin Nikolay, Tatlin Vladimir, Chashnik Ilya, Chernikhov Yakov, Chekhonin Sergey, Shaposhnikov Boris, Exter Alexandra, Ender Ksenia …
Fashion houses: Altuzarra, Celine, Chloe, Christopher Kane, Diana von Furstenberg, Dries Van Noten, Issey Miyake, JW Anderson, Loewe, Marco De Vincenzo, Marni, Mary Katrantzou, Peter Pilotto Rosie Assouline.