Shapes and colors

“The entire action of painting resides in the relationship between colors, in the relationship between forms, and in the relationship between forms and colors,” wrote Auguste Herbin (1889-1960).
If this is true for painting according to Herbin, the same is true for the motif, whether expressive or decorative, that adorns printed fabrics.
The use of geometric shapes and colors initially aims to create a vocabulary understandable by all and usable in all fields. The grammar used allows for infinite combinations, but it is precisely in its simplicity that its limitations lie. The use of form and color seems accessible to everyone, but the results, as in writing, vary in quality.
Textile designers played a pioneering role in the creative process through their use of form and color.
From the second half of the 17th century onward, the success of the first Indian textiles to arrive in the West was largely due to their rich colors. They illuminated the interiors and clothing of Europeans. Western manufacturers quickly adopted them, and they formed the first foundations of the decorative textile vocabulary. Natural colors, primarily madder and indigo, limited the creative palette, but the designers' imagination knew no bounds when it came to inventing new designs. These were the basis of commercial success. The design had to entice consumers. The offerings had to be constantly renewed, and designers became masters in the use of form and color to transcend natural reality.
From the 18th century onward, they drew inspiration from the infinitely small, which the improvement of microscopes allowed them to perceive. They created abstract fabrics or fabrics covered with modules resembling cells.
In the 19th century, the beginnings of chemistry, the improvement of engraving techniques, and the use of wool unleashed their imagination. Without ideology, but out of commercial necessity, they use abstract or geometric forms, drawing inspiration from movement and utilizing the third dimension to create kinetic or constructed fabrics.
In the 20th century, modern painting took up these principles, accompanied by a discourse, through painters such as Robert Delaunay (1885-1941), Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), Josef Albers (1888-1976), and Victor Vasarely (1906-1997). In the 1930s, the Art Deco style produced highly graphic geometric fabrics that complemented the furniture and decor of the time. In the 1950s and 60s, painting inspired the world of textiles through movements such as geometric and lyrical abstraction. In the 1970s, kinetic geometry adorned fabrics. Today, the colorful abstraction of Street Art is renewing the decorative vocabulary of textiles.
Sometimes designers have been pioneers, producing avant-garde motifs. Other times, they simply copy or draw inspiration from painters. For example, in 1965, Yves Saint Laurent created his legendary Mondrian dress for his Autumn/Winter collection, inspired by the renowned Piet Mondrian, another inventor of geometric abstraction. This dress would be widely copied.
The "Shapes and Colors" exhibition invites visitors to immerse themselves in this fascinating, graphic, and vibrant world, both spontaneous and conceptual, where the works of great 20th-century masters engage in a dialogue with the creations of ingenious textile designers. In a strikingly colorful and architecturally structured setting, the creative process of these successive generations of designers is rightfully highlighted.