Visual artists, philosophers or writers, these artists who embody the style

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The course of the recent exhibition “They make abstraction”, which was held until this summer at the Center Pompidou, did not begin with works. But with portraits. Before entering the first room, turning towards a large white wall, we discovered seventy photographs, most often in black and white, presenting the faces of the artists exhibited, painters, sculptors, visual artists, known, unknown or completely unknown. Their only common point? To have been despised during their lifetime.

” My idea, explains Christine Macel, exhibition curator, it was precisely to make them visible, and that the visitor could browse the rooms while being imbued with their personalities. “ The images on this introductory wall were worth all the labels, all the biographies. In the blink of an eye, the visitor understood everything. From every woman portrayed, artist of the Russian avant-garde, American painter of the post-war period or minimalist sculptor of the 1970s, emanated the impetus of freedom that had animated her, the sling waged against the misogyny of the world of art.

Their appearance embodied work

Social networks besides were not mistaken. On the Instagram accounts of visitors to the Center Pompidou, the images of these artists circulated a lot and sometimes supplanted the works: portraits of women in their studio, dressed in tunics covered in paint stains or with torn sleeves or, conversely, impeccable-looking personalities, embroidered or very colorful dresses.

These kinds of images, called “inspiring”, are common on Instagram or Pinterest, which cherish this type of “vintage” portrait. On these networks, we find many artists, philosophers, writers… Leading women all the more remarkable because they coexist with cohorts of pop stars and other influencers.

But Simone de Beauvoir and her famous turban styling a concentrated face, Susan Sontag and her dark turtlenecks, Toni Morrison and her male suits, or Françoise Sagan, with her bright zebra print shirts, marked their discipline, and their appearance. embodied work, thought, importance.

“All these women are personalities who were far from the clothing sector, says Miren Arzalluz, director of the Palais Galliera, Fashion Museum of the City of Paris. But their originality still marks today, especially since it is often a detail, of a way of tying a scarf, of letting a shirt protrude from the bottom of a sweater, of a way of wear a suit jacket, without having put on the sleeves or having them rolled up. It is easy to draw inspiration from it. “

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