Legends and tributes, art and fashion exhibitions. With this and much more welaunch the 7 Art Highlights for March.
The third month of the year brings us Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Madrid, where the best garments will walk the catwalk. The Middle East is very present with Art Dubai, and an exhibition by Virgil Abloh at Qatar Museums. Paying homage to the origins of Yves Saint Laurent, Paris is dressed in his clothes. We discover the author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry through the Principito, and Picasso through photographs. In addition, Venice is exhibited in an immersive way to discover the details of the Italian city. Let’s get carried away by the 7 Art Highlights for March.
Fashion crosses the capital of Madrid
We start March full of art with the 75th edition of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid, paying tribute and making the fashion of the best designers shine. Presenting the autumn-winter collection 2022-23, the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid will be 100% sold out and will be able to enjoy the 34 participating brands in this edition. Of these, 22 will be able to parade on the Mercedes-Benz catwalk in pavilion 14.1 at Ifema Madrid, while the remaining 12 will do so in different locations around the capital.
The Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, with recycled fabrics and transmitting life through its characteristic colours, will be present. Custo Barcelona will be showing its next Light Up collection, an experimental proposal, both in terms of pattern and the combination of fabrics. The haute couture of Malne will also surprise again in the fashion show with customised luxury garments. Transmitting the extensive experience they have as a brand heading major magazines such as Vogue or Elle. In addition to young talents such as Karont, with urban garments, covering different unisex visions.
Karont for this new edition presents Thirteen, a collection inspired by spirituality, experiences and teachings that are captured from life itself.
MBFW Madrid kicks off after the end of Paris Fashion Week, preventing the great designers from missing the big international catwalks. As in previous years, the event continues to reinforce digitalisation, complementing new technologies with the on-site scene;
Light Up Collection by Custo Barcelona. Transmitting light and creativity
The Allianz EGO Confidence in Fashion award is still present, and 10 young creators will take part to achieve it. It is also recovering its international character and supporting up-and-coming talents. This edition will have a special theme remembering all those designers who have forged their garments over more than 30 years. Not only focusing on the author’s creation, but also on the cultural essence that they have left after 75 years on the catwalks;
When?:9-13 March 2022
Where?:Avenida del Partenón, 5, Madrid
Artistic diversity in the Middle East
This year, Art Dubai celebrates its 15th edition, and continues to be a reference for world art in the Middle East. More than 100 galleries from over 40 countries will be hosted enriching cultural diversity. Representing not only artists from the East, but from the different continents; Asian, African and American. The exhibition will be divided into four sections: Contemporary, Modern, Bawwaba and Digital, the latter being a novelty.
Zone Yonaguni, 2016. Digital installation by Angelika Markul, artist of the Albarrán Bourdais Gallery.
Going into each of them, during the contemporary exhibition you can enjoy individual and group exhibitions. All of them offer a different view of the world and of art, offering the opportunity to discover what is unknown. As for the modern world, works originating from the MENASA region (referring to the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia) are presented. Thus connecting the magic created in the 20th century that still inspires today. Galleries such as Argentina’s Isla Flotante, India’s Emami Art and Madrid’s Albarrán Bourdais will be present, representing international artists from different generations.
The Bawwaba section brings together new artists who show their work by making contact from close proximity.
New artists and their new collections are of great importance at the fair, Bawwaba brings together new art to discover. Much of this art is specially created to be exhibited at Art Dubai, offering visitors artistic novelties and different techniques to create. As we have already mentioned, this year sees the inauguration of the Digital section. Digitisation is very present in our daily lives, and its representation in art cannot be less so. This 2022 Art Dubai can also be enjoyed with a visit to the Universal Art Exhibition in Dubai. Since last October, the fair has been welcoming thousands and thousands of national and international visitors, and can be enjoyed until its closing on 31 March.
When:From 11 to 13 March 2022.
Where: Madinat Jumeirah Conference & Events Centre, King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud St, Dubai, UAE.
Hours: Friday and Saturday from 14.00h to 21.00h. Sunday from 12.00h to 18.00h.
Tickets: You can purchase tickets here.
Virgil Abloh and his legacy in music, fashion and art
Qatar Museumsis once again among our recommendations, this time with the exhibition Virgil Abloh: Figures of speech. This is the first exhibition by the renowned American artist at the Qatari museum, offering a deep insight into music, fashion, design and architecture. The exhibition features more than 55 works created by the artist during his twenty-year career.
The first part of the exhibition takes visitors back to his origins between music and fashion. His first designs, in the early 2000s, drew the attention of the creative team of the singer Kanye West, and this helped him to enter the world of urban textiles. All the garments were inspired by what he claimed, being critical of social classes, races or history. His Off-White clothing brand takes a central place in this first stage, highlighting urban clothing, showing how skaters adopted “unfashionable” styles to later revolutionise contemporary culture.
Efflorescence de Virgil Abloh. Graffiti on concrete. Mr. Michel and Mrs. Fati Rosenberg. Galerie Kreo. The Gymnastic Art Institute & Virgil Abloh Studio and Design Practice
With the launch of Off-White, Abloh appealed to the younger generation, offering a good platform to give visibility to black girls and boys. In this way, thanks to his position, he could convey a more inclusive vision in the industry and in the world. In addition, on the design side, Abloh was trained as an architect, and his characteristic vision of art was also reflected in furniture, paintings and sculptures.
When: From 5 November 2021 to 2 April 2022.
Where: Fire Station, Garage Gallery, Mohammed Bin Thani, Doha, Qatar.
Hours: Saturday to Thursday from 9.00h to 19.00h. Friday from 13.30h to 19.00h.
Tickets: You can purchase tickets here.
The art of Yves Saint Laurent reflected in Paris
Sixty years ago, the young designer Yves Saint Laurent had his first fashion show. From that moment on, his vision and style was marked in fashion throughout his career, leaving a groundbreaking and inspiring legacy. To commemorate his beginnings, six Paris museums have joined forces to present the Yves Saint Laurent aux Musées exhibition. Thus, the Museum of Yves Saint Laurent in Paris, the Centre Pompidou, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Museum d’Orsay, the Louvre Museum and the Picasso Museum-Paris offer visitors the chance to enjoy the couturier’s jewels in the streets of Paris.
Satin dresses from the autumn-winter 1992 and 1995 collections at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris. Philippe Petit
The tour of each of the museums invites you to delve into the different cultures and artistic visions that inspired Saint Laurent’s designs. In each of them, different themes are shown, as the designer had multiple facets and skills when it came to creating. At the Centre Pompidou you can see how the couturier was totally in tune with the artistic movements of the 20th century, while at the Museum of Modern Art you can discover how colours and textures were treated in the garments. The figure of Picasso was very relevant in the last century, and this also occupies a special place in Picasso-Paris.
YSL garments on display next to Alom, 1966, a work by the Hungarian-French artist Victor Vasarely, at the Pompidou Centre.
Tribute dress to Pablo Picasso at the Centre Pompidou
At the Louvre Museum, visitors can see the exquisite treatment of lighting and gold. An aesthetic influence that came to Saint Laurent through Marcel Proust. In addition, the mix and match of womenswear and menswear also plays an important role in the Museum d’Orsay. To conclude the tour of each stage, the Museum Yves Saint Laurent offers the display of important archival materials from the fashion house; Many of them are little-known pieces, and clearly illustrate the daily work carried out in haute couture.
When?: Louvre Museum, Musée d’Orsay, Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris and Centre Pompidou from 29 January to 15 May 2022
Picasso Museum-Paris from 29 January to 15 April
M. YSL from 29 January to 18 September 2022
Where?: Picasso-Paris: 5 Rue de Thorigny, Paris, France
Louvre: Rue de Rivoli, Paris, France
Orsay: 1 Rue de la Légion d’Honneur, Paris, France
Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris: 11 Av. du Président Wilson, Paris, France
Pompidou Centre: Place Georges-Pompidou, Paris, France
M. YSL: 5 Av. Marceau, Paris, France
The light over Venice
Carrières des Lumières begin the month of March by presenting two immersive, digital exhibitions: Venice, The Serenissima, and Yves Klein, the infinite blue. The former, being the main one with a longer running time, while the latter is added with ten minutes of duration. Starting with Venice, the Italian city boasts great architectural and artistic treasures, beautiful structures in its buildings with a lot of history about them. In this way, visitors are immersed in Byzantine art, in the mosaics of the Basilica di Sant Marco or in works by Bellini or Tintoretto.
The immersive exhibition introduces visitors to the canals of Venice, recalling their history and essence.
The urban landscape is also to be discovered through parties and opera. The masked parties in the great halls of the palaces, the symbol represented in the glass or the monochrome engravings. On the other hand, the Cinema Exhibition is also presented, with images of Italian actresses from the 1960s. Transmitting the glamour and presence that Venice conveyed on an international level.
Yves Klein, through colours, makes the spectators travel. All in conjunction with music that accompanies the visit.
As for Yves Klein‘s short tour, visitors will be able to enjoy the French artist’s vision of the Mediterranean and its colour. For Klein, colour acquired a spiritual and metaphysical dimension. His early works such as the Monochromes expressed the world by suppressing colour diversity. This gave rise to the explosion of electric blue that bathes the space and takes viewers on a journey into different worlds; More than 90 works and 60 archive images are used to sensitise visitors, ending the exhibition with an explosion in flames. Creating new life from what has been destroyed;
When: From 4 March 2022 to 2 January 2023.
Where: Route de Maillane, Les Baux-de-Provence, France.
Hours: March from 9.30h to 18.00h. April, May, June, September and October from 9.00h to 19.00h. July and August from 9.00h to 19.30h. January, November and December from 10.00h to 18.00h.
Tickets: You can purchase tickets here.
Picasso: father and artist in front of the camera
The Museum Picasso-Paris presents the exhibition Picasso à l’image on two of its floors, a journey where visitors can see the painter in front of the camera, and not behind his paintings. From art films, personal documentaries or reports. Showing his facet as a father, worker and friend, as well as a pure artist. Alongside these images, his own works are also presented, connecting them with his projections.
Each floor focuses on two different facets. On the one hand, on the first floor we can observe the personality of Picasso, from films shot by him in the 1930s to documentaries made in 1950. All this shows how he worked in his studio in Vallauris and how in the 1960s television programmes were interested in his art. On the other hand, the third floor offers an immersion into the studio of his villa La Californie, in Cannes. Pablo Picasso lived and worked there from 1955 to 1961, exploiting his artistic potential. In this same section, visitors will be able to enjoy a digital presentation of the Villa, allowing them to enter Picasso’s reality, as if they were physically inside the studio.
The interior of the exhibition shows personal images of Picasso’s day-to-day life, tracing his career as an artist, father, husband and friend.
There have been many exhibitions where the artist and the moving image have been explored, for example the Centre Pompidou or the Consortium de Dijon. The former by studying the relationship between his figure and the cinema, while the latter by studying how Picasso inspired him in television from 1960 onwards. But this current exhibition mixes these two ideas in a broader way. Showing the artist in his environment, in confidence, with family and friends. In front of the camera, and not behind the brushes.
When?: From 9 November 2021 to 12 February 2023.
Where: 5 Rue de Thorigny, Paris, France
Hours:Tuesday to Sunday from 9.30am to 6.00pm
Tickets: You can purchase tickets here.
Getting to know the little aviator
The Musée des Arts Décoratifs presents the first exhibition in France dedicated to the Principe, one of the literary gems to be found in our libraries. The exhibition features more than 600 pieces by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, poet, aviator, philosopher, and with very humanist ideals. All this came together and is reflected in the little prince. With this great tribute, the original manuscript of the work, preserved in the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, rests for the first time in France.
During the visit, visitors can enjoy watercolours, sketches and drawings. In addition to poems, photographs and newspaper clippings, most of these pieces are unpublished for visitors. Through all these pieces, the exhibition seeks to reveal the unknown aspects of Saint-Exupéry, which are key to understanding the magic that surrounds the work. The author’s childhood opens the tour, his upbringing in an aristocratic family, his love of writing and his fascination with aeroplanes.
The Little Prince dedicated by the author himself. Christophe Petit Tesson
The museum’s director, Oliver Gabet, points out that the work offers timeless philosophical ideals. Everything that is narrated is purely about life, and it should be remembered that it is not just a text for children. It is very important for adults to reflect on what it is to love and be loved, that “the essential is invisible to the eye”. And perhaps these little things, children are able to understand them before adults.
Beyond these exceptional pages, it is an exhibition in itself that flourishes, tracing the life of the writer-aviator, listing the sources of the text and his wanderings, gathering other documents and drawings, generously lent by institutions and collectors. […]
The large exhibition includes small portraits, drawings and illustrations of the little prince. Christophe Petit Tesson
His wife Consuelo and his friend Léon Werth are two very prominent figures in the visit. She is represented as the rose that the child cares for and loves, and Werth is remembered as a great thinker and spiritual support for the author. At the end of the journey through Saint-Exupéry’s life, and as a highlight, you can see the manuscript published in the United States in 1943. In addition to a collection of 120 foreign editions in almost 500 languages into which the work has been translated;
When: February 17 to June 26, 2022.
Where: Rue de Rivoli, Paris, France.
Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 11.00h to 18.00h. Thursday from 11.00h to 21.00h. Saturday and Sunday from 11.00h to 20.00h. Monday closed.
Tickets: You can purchase ticketshere.
Images courtesy of IFEMA, Art Dubai, Qatar Museums, Yves Saint Laurent, Carrières des Lumières, Musée Picasso-Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs
