‘The Fashion World Is Better at Recognizing the Next New Thing Than the Art World’: Painters David Kramer and André Butzer on Collaborating With Celine

Hedi Slimane is fashion’s
perennial cool kid. His models are skinny, unsmiling, and seemingly
always in a rush. While presenting his Celine Men’s Spring 2020
collection in Paris last June, he sent just that brand of model,
decked out ‘70s-inspired clothes, down the runway. Their
bell-bottom trousers, Cuban-heeled boots and Bowie-esque tailored
suits are signatures of what became known as the peacock revolution
of men’s fashion, which effectively discontinued the lazy lines of
hippie culture and redirected the category toward the swish, slick
glamour of disco and rock and roll. 

Around this time in fashion
history, designers also began to take inspiration from the art
world in the form of Pop Art-inspired patterns and prints. And so
it is fitting that Slimane—who is also a photographer himself
as well as a dedicated art collector—teamed up with six artists to
create the new collection. The designs pay tribute to the history
of cross-pollination between the sectors. 

Indeed, if Andy Warhol’s 1967
Souper Dress was, in a sense, the first of its kind—a tricked-out
luxury product-turned-artwork made doubly valuable by its
creator—then the art-and-fashion collaborations that followed, born
in the houses of haute couture and either conceived with or
inspired by the top artists of the day, would constitute a new
category all their own.

To the delight of fashion
devotees—who had long bemoaned being pooh-poohed by art-world
purists for their decidedly more commercial tastes—Warhol’s dress
begot a new kind of cross-pollination that quietly ran parallel to
the regularly scheduled programming of most fashion and art shows,
occasionally making an appearance on a runway or in an
exhibition. 

In recent years, of course,
these boundaries have collapsed much further, opening the door to
hybrid projects that consumers have not only come to expect, but
covet. 

The evolution of this corner of
culture is exactly what inspired the collection that Slimane
readied for the runway last summer—and now, it has arrived in
stores and (perhaps more relevantly right now) is also available in its
entirety online.

From the Minds of Artists

Featuring contributions from six
artists, including painters David Kramer and André Butzer, the
clothes carry with them a palpable sense of ‘70s nostalgia, culled
from the artists’ recollections or imagined associations of the
period.

There are straw totes and retro
gym-style t-shirts featuring the painterly sunsets and cheesy
slogans of vintage lifestyle ads courtesy Kramer, as well as the
energetic, color-saturated brushstrokes of Butzer replicated on
velvet jackets in winking, sequined patterns. New York-based artist
Zach Bruder, meanwhile, created art around vintage comic-inspired
characters and fragmentary images of domestic life—tables, fruit,
and kitchenware, which collectively form a callback to Old Master
still lifes.  

“Hedi is pretty aware of what
goes on around the contemporary art world,” says Kramer, whose work
was perhaps featured most prominently in the collection. “I’ve been
showing my work for years at galleries and art fairs all over the
world, so that’s where our paths crossed. I think the thing that
pushed him over the edge was a couple of solo projects I did at
SPRING/BREAK [Art Show in 2019] in New York.” The works Slimane saw
on display there would form the backbone of their collaboration.
“He reached out to me through a gallery, and we took it from
there,” Kramer says.  

Kramer presented Slimane with a
wide selection of work, and the two discussed which would translate
best onto clothing. The designer honed in on Kramer’s
nostalgia-based “ad paintings,” which spoof ads from ’70s lifestyle
magazines, feeling they would offer the collection a dose of
familiarity and humor. Kramer worked with the designer to select
the ironic phrases that were eventually emblazoned on several
pieces.

“I’d been working with images
and text for a long time, so naturally I’ve made t-shirts and hats
and pins, but this experience with Celine was different,” Kramer
says. “Before, I’d been trying to parody the idea of fandom. But
this was the first time I’d worked with anyone in the fashion
world. And I think the thing that surprised me most was how fast
everything goes—and at a scale you just don’t see in the art
world.”

Art for the Masses

According to Kramer, the scale
factor—the opportunity to have one’s work and message produced en
masse for a new, but still-art-loving, audience—is a major factor
driving artists into the arms of luxury brands. But that shift is
still new. Kramer recalls taking an art criticism class with
legendary critic Hal Foster while in school: “I remember this one thing he always used to
say: essentially, that it was the job of the artist to run as far
away from fashion, or what is fashionable, as fast as possible. To
try to break the norms and find originality. But, if the artist is
any good, he becomes fashion. And at times, the fashion world is
better at recognizing the next new thing than the art world
is.” 

Although he admits he isn’t sure
how it works at other houses, Kramer says he was also surprised by
the creative leeway extended to him by Celine. “They were tremendously generous,” he notes.
“They used my work to influence this collection and at no point
have I felt like either of us lost our voice or had to
compromise.” 

Plus, in fashion collaborations,
at least the idea of creative exchange is explicit. “Fashion
designers are hungry for ideas, and many of them can co-opt what
they see around them,” the artist notes. “But people in the art
world are guilty of this, too. We all have to respect each other’s
ideas on our way to expressing our vision.”  

And although Butzer, unlike
Kramer, wasn’t actually familiar with Celine prior to this project,
he is now a convert to the pleasures of such collaborations. “These
people were great [to me], and they let me alone in in my garden,
under the sun and plants,” he said in an email. “The results are
wonderful, and I am very thankful.”

In the end, both artists were
pleased to see their works transformed in dialogue and
collaboration with a different kind of artist. “I love the straw
bags with my text on them, that’s my favorite piece,” notes Kramer.
“I never would have considered doing something like that myself.
This is the best part of working with someone else. Mixing my words
with Hedi’s vision—it worked great.”   

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Next New Thing Than the Art World’: Painters David Kramer and André
Butzer on Collaborating With Celine appeared first on artnet
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