Fashion and art have always lived a unique combination. Milan celebrates with three exhibitions two artists who have been able to combine these two worlds in their works, becoming reference points on the international scene: the photographer Giovanni Gastel and the Swiss illustrator François Berthoud.
A life spent behind the lens of a camera meeting and portraying celebrities from all over the world. A book would not be enough to describe the talent, technique and career of a photographer like Giovanni Gastel. What you can do instead is remember him, paying homage to him and telling him through what most represents him: his shots.
Triennale Milano thus dedicates two exhibitions to the famous photographer, which can be visited until March 13, 2022 (a significant date since it represents the first year after his death). The first, entitled “The People I Like”, is a journey through 200 portraits of celebrities belonging to the world of politics, fashion, music and design up to works portraying journalists, actors and operators in the sector.
The second, from the title “The jewels of the imagination” and in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Photography, it is a blast from the past. A leap in 1991, in the one to be considered one of the most important years for the artist, during which he gave life to one of the first projects that consecrated him to an internationally renowned photographer, that is the one commissioned by Daniel Swarovski Corporation in 1991 to the homonymous book and the 20th century jewelry exhibition, both curated by Deanna Farneti Cera.
Giovanni Gastel, The jewels of the imagination, 1991
In the first path we experience Giovanni Gastel’s deep eye through the faces, gazes and emotions of the subjects portrayed, from former US President Barack Obama to artists such as Roberto Bolle, Monica Bellucci, Miriam Leone, Vasco Rossi. In the second photographic journey, on the other hand, 20 images are exhibited where the human figure is transformed in correlation to the jewels depicted, endowed with a profound meaning that goes beyond the simple materiality of the object. With the two exhibitions, two souls of the same artist are staged that come together and combine to create a recognizable and loved style, not surprisingly it has become a symbol of Italianness abroad.
If the correspondence with the world of fashion and the star system represented Giovanni Gastel’s artistic and personal life, the opposite cannot be said for the Swiss cartoonist and illustrator. François Berthoud, one of the most recognized fashion artists of his generation. To remember the immense work carried out between the 80s, 90s up to the present day, the exhibition “Hyperillustrations” presented by the Sozzani Foundation in collaboration with Bulgari, whose famous snake that characterizes the brand is celebrated by the artist himself.
An illustration by Berthoud for Prada
The exhibition takes place in two locations in the Lombard capital: in the Bulgari boutique in via Montenapoleone 2 until February 15 and in that of the Sozzani Foundation until March 27. An exhibition journey through forty years of artistic productions that have seen him author of works, drawings, prints for important magazines and magazines, from “Vogue” to “Vanity”, passing through “The New Yorker”, “The New York Times ”And“ Vissionaire ”, and finding himself collaborating with fashion names such as Jean ‐ Paul Gaultier, Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Givenchy, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Hermès, Prada.
Berthoud, who also draws inspiration from Japanese xylography in his works, has become famous for his sophisticated methods, which demonstrate how much art requires care, workmanship both in the creative and ideological process, and in that of realization. As he is keen to point out, “in the physical process there are no shortcuts, I need time but I am always fascinated by the mystery of the final print that goes beyond the imagination and is never what you expect”.