Art Couture is a series of illuminated sculptures by French artist Nicolas Saint Grégoire. This series pays tribute to Yves Saint-Laurent whom has been a major influence on Saint Grégoire practice.
Each illuminated sculpture comprises Plexiglass and neon, and is inspired by dresses created by Saint-Laurent as part of his 1960’s haute Couture Pop Collection which Saint-Laurent created in homage to artists such as Mondrian, Wesselmann, Braque, Picasso and Warhol.
Driven by the common quest for harmony of line and colour, Nicolas Saint- Grégoire whom is mentored by Pierre Bergé, President of the Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation, started his research in 2008/09 where he was given exclusive access to the Yves Saint Laurent archives. The resultant work entitled Mondrian Dress 1, 2008 was inspired by the 1965 Day Dress created by Saint Laurent in homage to artist Piet Mondrian.
Mondrian Dress 1, 2008 was presented by The Cynthia Corbett Gallery in Paris, London, Miami, New York, Chicago, Basel and Milan. The success of this work was confirmed by Mondrian Dress 2, 2009 inspired by the same collection, which was reproduced by key French magazines and newspapers such as Le Monde, Beaux Arts and Belles Demeures. The foreign press has equally echoed the Mondrian Dress 2 was published in Country Life and press for October 2011 includes Easy Jet Magazine, Lawfully Chic - Mishcon de Reya’s Cultural Blog, and Net-a-Porter.
Nicolas Saint Grégoire has developed this concept further and has created a series of light sculptures exclusively inspired by Yves Saint Laurent dresses, which in turn were inspired by famous art works. In order to represent the dresses faithfully, Saint Grégoire designed his works sketching directly from the original pieces in the archive, using the same sketching tradition Yves Saint Laurent did many decades before