Portrait of Gabrielle Chanel by Douglas Kirkland
A new exhibition at the Ca’ Pesaro Gallery of Modern Art in Venice explores Coco Chanel’s love for literature and her relationships to the artists and authors of her age. The seventh edition of Culture Chanel focusses on the designer’s personal relationship to books and authors through archive material from her personal library.
The impressive archive on display includes over 350 pieces exposing Chanel’s aesthetic vocabulary, ranging from personal correspondence with artists and writers to books, photographs, paintings, art objects, jewellery and perfume. Chanel enjoyed lively friendships with some of the key intellectuals of her age, and this exhibition shows just how much her designs were influenced by this, from Dadaist humour to surrealist poetry.
Highlights of the exhibition include a fan with transcribed verses written by Stéphane Mallarmé that was gifted to Misia Sert, one of Chanel’s closest allies and a key figure in the artistic circles in Paris; a sketch of the designer by Jean Cocteau; and Dada flyers exhibited alongside the cult Chanel N°5 logo which draws comparisons between the now infamous emblem and the aesthetic of the Dada texts. All her life Chanel relied on reading as an escape, and she confided to her friend Paul Morand: “Books have been my best friends.”
Gabrielle Chanel’s Article ‘Queens of France’
Paul Albert Bohrmann’s Portrait of Gabrielle. Jean Cocteau by Lucien Clergue
Portrait of Coco Chanel by Jean Cocteau and Venises by Paul Morand
Culture Chanel, La Donna Che Legge, runs from 17 September 2016 until 8 January 2017 at Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery Of Modern Art, Venice, Italy.