Chanel is to fashion what Picasso is to painting”, said French poet Jean Cocteau, a conceit that serves as inspiration for an exhibition at Madrid’s Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum. Picasso/Chanel explores the relationship between these 20th-century creative superstars, including the two occasions when they worked together professionally alongside Cocteau.
In 1922, Pablo Picasso and Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel drew on classical Greek influences to Two years later, they were channelling the spirit of the times in one of impresario Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes: a cultural phenomenon that consolidated all that was modern in the first half of the 20th century and employed the talents of avant-garde artists from the worlds of dance, music, art, fashion and literature to work together on heady productions that would amaze, inspire and sometimes challenge audiences. The impact of the Ballets Russes on the arts has continued to be felt profoundly in the century since.
