Art — both contemporary and historic — has played a huge role in Alessandro Michele’s tenure at Gucci. He has collaborated with a number of artists on campaigns and capsule collections, and his references to the renaissance have been overt. However his latest project takes his passion to a whole new level. Gucci has just launched a new beauty Instagram account (@guccibeauty), but instead of glamorous models and product shots, every post so far has been a famous painting.
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“Beauty represents an ideal of each place and era, a style that the artist felt was worth preserving,” reads a statement on Gucci’s website. “Sometimes it meant high hairlines and high collars, like Elizabethan England, but it can also be native woman’s simple blouse from a 1876 portrait by painter Felipe Santiago Gutierrez, one of the first international Mexican artists.”
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What is clear from the project is that Michele is committed to highlighting all kinds of art, and contextualizing pieces for modern eyes. Helping him is a group of critics, journalists, and artists — including Tatiana Berg, Britt Julious, Larissa Pham, and Antwaun Sargent — who are writing the captions for each post, which are edited by Kyle Chayka.
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“Beauty evolves over time and moves across cultures. Colonialism and globalization have meant political encounters between different standards of beauty as people adopt ideas from each other,” the statement continues. “Representation keeps evolving as the full breadth of art history becomes clear. Through this collection it’s possible to observe how beauty has no one strict definition but is instead an exchange of seeing and being seen.” Overall it’s a fascinating account that fans will surely eat up. After all, who doesn’t love a little #artinspo?
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