Fundación Mafre is pleased to present the work of Jean Paul Gaultier for the first time in Spain, celebrating 35 years of creation by Jean Paul Gaultier. Initiated and produced by the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal (MBAM) this is the first international show dedicated to the designer, and aspires to be a groundbreaking project that sheds light on the artist, his work and his influence on the world.

The exhibition, more of a contemporary installation than a retros­pective features 110 couture and prêt-à-porter ensembles and over 50 sketches, accompanied by audiovisual materials, excerpts from fashion shows and interviews, and early designs and photographs, all of which testify to Jean Paul Gaultier’s daring, cutting-edge style and the genius and careful craftsmanship of his creations. This exhibi­tion tour will present for the first time to the spanish public the work of JPG and never seen before pieces like the two iconic corsets from Madonna’s 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour .

Jean Paul Gaultier has close ties to Spain, as the designer recent­ly admitted in an interview with the show’s curator : “As a boy, I travelled often to Spain with my parents, and I even dreamed of becoming a Spanish teacher ! But my greatest passion, fashion, was destined to become my profession. I’ve worked with a number of Spanish artists, such as Pedro Almodóvar – for whom I worked on three occasions, designing wardrobes for actresses like Rossy de Palma, Elena Anaya and Victoria Abril – and the flamenco dancer Joaquín Cortés. Spain’s unique culture, from flamenco to the Madrid Movida, has always been a source of inspiration for me. I’ve reinter­preted its bolero jackets, fans and Sevillian shawls in several collec­tions.”

That affinity and the artist’s collaborations with the Spanish film, fashion and dance industries – and with Pedro Almodóvar in particu­lar – are well documented in this exhibition, for which the film director has loaned wardrobe items and sketches from The Skin I Live In, Bad Education and Kika that will only appear in the Madrid production.

Nathalie Bondil, Director and Chief Curator of the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal started the project with the ambition of creating an exhibition about Jean Paul Gaultier because of his great humanity, his open minded vision of society where everyone can be proud and distinctive because of his/her own identity, far more than the technical virtuosity or the imagination his creations have.

Jean Paul Gaultier has often been called the enfant terrible of fashion, a sobriquet he has earned by demonstrating his ability to blend high and low culture, just as art had done before, and use the result in his creations. The street has been his source of inspiration as well as his ultimate goal for, like all great couturiers, his greatest desire is for his creations to be worn, lived in and seen by all the world.

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The exhibition will run from 6 October 2012 – 6 January 2013 at Fundación Mapfre, Madrid.