Monday, February 23, 2009

Yves Saint Laurent and Warhol Live

Again, while waiting for William's visa I visited the De Young Museum and went to two exhibits there- Yves Saint Laurent's fashions and Warhol Live. I now have a much greater appreciation for this great designer who passed away in 2008. He actually started out working for Christian Dior and then he later started his own line. He was the first to introduce the pant suit and one of my personal favorites, the pea coat, for women. They had many different outfits throughout his career on display. However, the best part was that they had video of many of the outfits seen out on the runway which is how the clothese SHOULD be seen. They had so much great movement and fit that wasn't fully realized on a manequin. Some of my favorite pieces included his interpretations in clothing of famous artists and writers. His sheath dress of Mondrian was clever, as well as these elaborate jackets looking like the water lillies and sunflowers of Van Gogh. He did some dresses inspired by Matisse's cutouts and some by Pablo Picasso. I just thought it was so creative how he incoporated these legendary art forms into another art form. He also did these unique pieces made out of horse hair as well as these elaborate headdresses. Sadly, photography was not allowed so this is the only dress that I can show.

I was there a day earlier than the Warhol exhibit was supposed to open on the 14th but one of the benefits of being a member is that I was able to go there the day before. I know that Warhol was an interesting artist but the exhibit showed me just how weird he is. I wouldn't recommend this exhibit to others because there is a fair amount of visual racy images, particularly because he did some work in film. I quite enjoyed his work of Elvis is silver as a triple threat. I didn't realize just how many album covers Warhol decorated. I think that the yellow silk screen self portrait of him is basically sums up with Warhol.

No comments: