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What do you get when the Queen of Colour meets a famed Post-Impressionist painter? A visual experience like no other.
In a world-first, the National Gallery of Victoria premiered the majestic new exhibition, ‘Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi’, in partnership with NET-A-PORTER, this month. The exclusive display sees French-Iranian designer India Mahdavi cast her whimsical eye over an array of works by 19th-century artist Pierre Bonnard, resulting in a vibrant setting of incredible magnitude—a true feast for the senses.
Mining Bonnard’s expansive work for inspiration, Mahdavi reimagines a contemporary scenography for his work, building an immersive physical space that envelops viewers in the colours of the 100-strong collection of pieces.
Described as a ‘virtuoso of colour’ and ‘possessor of perfect chromatic pitch’, the award-winning architect has splashed interiors with custom prints, hues and even some pieces of furniture to set a scene that evokes the same wistful intimacy for which Bonnard’s paintings are renowned.
Of the exhibition, she said, ‘Monsieur Bonnard and I share the same passion for colour—the way he invites us in his home and intimacy is sublimated by his very own sense of colour—for this exhibition, we dived into Pierre Bonnard’s paintings and extracted some of his patterns and colours to recreate backdrops to his paintings, offering an immersive experience of a home to the visitor.’
Celebrated for his iridescent palette, the paintings of Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) depict intimate domestic interiors, natural landscapes and urban scenes with an observant subtlety, wit and an intuitive approach to colour and light. Renowned for his playful use of colour to convey an array of emotions, Bonnard was declared by his close friend Henri Matisse as “a great painter, for today and definitely also for the future.”
Organised by the NGV in partnership with the Musée d’Orsay, NET-A-PORTER and others, the exhibition brings late 19th and early 20th century France to life through paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and decorative objects by Pierre Bonnard, shown alongside early cinema by the Lumière brothers, and artworks by Maurice Denis, Félix Vallotton and Édouard Vuillard, Bonnard’s early contemporaries.
“Pierre Bonnard is one of the most captivating artists of the post-Impressionist movement,” said Tony Ellwood AM, Director, NGV. “This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to experience his work within a vivid scenography designed by India Mahdavi, one of the world’s leading designers working today. Both the artist and the designer are celebrated for their ingenious use of colour, making them a natural and authentic pairing for this NGV-exclusive exhibition.”
As a major partner of the exhibition, Natalie Lee, General Manager of YOOX NET-A-PORTER Asia Pacific, shared her excitement over the bewildering project. “We are very excited to partner with the National Gallery of Victoria on ‘Melbourne Winter Masterpieces ® 2023: Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi’. These important works, further brought to life by the award-winning architect and designer, India Mahdavi, really capture the beautiful marriage of art and design. It is our honour to support this world-exclusive exhibition in Melbourne and offer a lens to view fashion not as a commodity, but as an aspiration that is long-lasting and elicits emotion.”
Jane Zantuck, Assistant Director, Marketing and Corporate Partnerships, National Gallery of Victoria, echoed Lee’s enthusiasm in a statement. “We are delighted to be partnering with NET-A-PORTER on our upcoming Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition, Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi,” she said. “The partnership between NET-A-PORTER and NGV reflects a shared passion for delivering premium experiences for our audiences and reinforces NGV’s strong commitment to fashion and design.”
Tracing Bonnard’s evolution of work from the 1890s, the exhibition begins with the artist’s paintings and prints that portray Parisian street life. We’re then taken through a journey of the artist’s career when his perspective shifted to a more domestic vision of his life with his family.
Landscapes became a prominent subject for Bonnard from around 1910 onwards, influenced by his friendship with the painter Claude Monet. For Bonnard, landscape painting was a hybrid genre and often included glimpses of interiors and still lives through window scapes and pockets of spaces where the light of nature pours through the home.
With ‘Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi, we are invited to stand among key paintings by Bonnard, wrapped in the soft light of Mahdavi’s joyous colours. The result is a delectable experience that will brighten up any winter.
‘Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi’ is on display from June 9-October 8, 2023, at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne.
Tickets and information are available via the NGV website here.
