The exhibition 'Art and fashion in the Gulbenkian collection' will open in Lisbon, with Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Givenchy and Vivienne Westwood

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG), located next to the Spanish Steps in Lisbon, has announced that the exhibition titled 'Art and Fashion in the Gulbenkian Collection' will open on April 18, presenting iconic and enigmatic works by Portuguese and international figures. The exhibition, open until June 22 in the Main Gallery and closed only on Tuesdays, “invites us to enter a space where art breathes fashion and fashion awakens art,” said the eponymous foundation, named after the Ottoman Armenian oil engineer and businessman who was born in Istanbul, Turkey, became a naturalized British citizen and later settled in the Portuguese capital.

Curated by Eloy Martínez de la Peña, the exhibition is accompanied by a catalog illustrated with photographs by Jon Cazenave, taken exclusively for this project, which is part of the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the FCG.

“What links Vivienne Westwood to the French 18th century? Guo Pei with an ancient Egyptian funerary mask? Balenciaga with an Assyrian bas-relief? Or Alexander McQueen and the house of Givenchy with Japanese prints?” Read the foundation's website.

“In a sensory experience, the works of the Gulbenkian Collection dialogue with leading figures of haute couture and contemporary design, revealing shapes, symbols and gestures that transcend time,” he explained.

“Based on Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian's (1869-1955) deep interest in art and fashion, the exhibition begins by showing how the Gulbenkian couple followed the trends of their time,” it continues.

“The richness and diversity of the Gulbenkian Collection, with works of art from Ancient Egypt to the 20th century, allow us to explore how recurring motifs in art history are taken up and reinterpreted by contemporary fashion, in national and international contexts.”

It is a tour of around 100 works from the Gulbenkian Museum, displayed alongside 140 garments by names such as Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Versace, Vivienne Westwood and Yves Saint Laurent, to name a few, without forgetting Portuguese designers such as Alves/Gonçalves, José António Tenente, Maria Gambina, Nuno Baltazar and Nuno Gama.

“Paintings, sculptures, jewelry and other objects enter into dialogue with fashion pieces that reinvent them, narrate them, decipher them or complete them,” the exhibition website also states. “These are unexpected encounters that show how the aesthetics, ideas and sensibilities that inhabit this Collection can illuminate the world of fashion.”

In short, it is an invitation to “understand how beauty travels through time”, through diaphanous haute couture dresses that reveal to the attentive eye what “the texts do not always say: hierarchies, aspirations, social rituals, silences and revelations.”

“From classical painting to contemporary design, clothing becomes a mirror that shows that art and fashion have always shared the desire to narrate the human condition,” he concludes.