“Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse” Francis Bacon
The exhibition, “Fashionably Naïve”, was the product of an extraordinary collaboration between GINA Gallery of International Naïve Art and several fashion designers, led by Yaron Minkowski, who has returned to work in full force after a two-year hiatus. When Minkowski returned to work, he approached Ma’ayan Israeli – the gallery’s Artistic Director – with the idea of holding a joint exhibition that would explore the mutual influences and interactions between naïve art and the world of fashion. Israeli embraced the idea, and they began reaching out to potential collaborators in their respective fields: Yaron approached designers he thought may be interested in the collaborative project, while GINA Gallery issued a call for naïve artists worldwide to convey in painting what fashion is and its role in their lives.
Fashion is present in naïve paintings, whether they portray rural or urban life, in South America or in Western Europe, and it can – sometimes unintentionally – give us clues to the type of activity the figures are engaged in or where they come from, much like an anthropological record. The artworks that were submitted to the gallery following the call for artists came from Israel and many other countries, and clearly demonstrate this observation. Naturally, the paintings also reflect each artist’s personal interpretation of the concept of fashion and its role in his/her life, and such distinct individual interpretations can be found even among artists from the same country.
Similarly, a range of different interpretations can be observed in the many ways that naïve art inspired and influenced the designers that participated in the exhibition: from Yaron Minkowski’s meticulous and hand-crafted textile work, consisting of clothing sets inspired by the colorfulness of artworks from South and Central America, to Gal Ulman’s choice of Israeli artist, Zoe Sever, who typically paints Tel Aviv urban scenes, as his source of stylistic inspiration. The designer, Michal Negrin, and jeweler, Dori Csengeri, have both evidenced the joy, colorfulness and optimism that characterize naïve art as the starting points for their respective works, yet the resulting designs are remarkably different. Each contributor brings his/her own interpretation of naïve art, resulting in a diverse collection of designs, each reflecting the unique combination of the creator’s own signature style with the richness and variety of the naïve genre.
This collaboration was a first for GINA Gallery and for these designers, but it is by no means the first time that fashion is influenced by the art world. Throughout the twentieth century, elite designers created several important collections inspired by canonical artists: e.g., in 1949, Christian Dior created a collection inspired by impressionist artist, Claude Monet; and in 1965, Yves Saint Laurent created a collection inspired by modernist artist, Piet Mondrian.
Fashion is our way of expressing ourselves on a daily basis. It is the immediate manner to visually tell others about ourselves without using words. For example, fashion can reflect social status, economic situation, conservative mindset versus free and nonconformist thought, and the like. From the moment we develop awareness of what we wear, usually during adolescence, fashion becomes a means for us to associate ourselves with a certain social group while distancing ourselves from others. Our sense of fashion develops and changes throughout our lives, from the social circles of our youth to different workplaces and the dress codes they enforce. The clothes we wear to work will not necessarily be the same clothes we choose to wear for a social gathering or a certain cultural event. Our choice of clothes may also be affected by our mood on a given day and, of course, they should (preferably) be adapted to our local climate.
Fashion functions as an agreed-upon language and, just like our spoken languages, varies among countries, religions and cultures, but in all of them it serves as an unwritten code, widely understood and recognized in that particular society. Fashion can be groundbreaking and innovative – both in its design and in the use of advanced materials and techniques – and it can also preserve ancient traditions and crafts that are slowly disappearing. Fashion is present in our lives every day, everywhere. There is elite fashion, and everyday fashion; mass-produced fashion, and fashion created as a one-of-a-kind work of art.
