Galerie Pentcheff lends its René Gruau collection to Korean museum Sangsang Madang
René Gruau and French “elegance” at KT&G Sangsang Madang
A talented self-taught artist, René Gruau (1909 - 2004) began by publishing his first fashion drawings in Italian magazines, before moving to Paris, where he began collaborating with renowned publications such as Vogue, Marie-Claire, Club and the women's magazine Marianne. It was during this period that he made the acquaintance of young designers, including Christian Dior and Jacques Fath, with whom he forged deep friendships.
A true icon of advertising art and French elegance, René Gruau left behind an impressive corpus of over 80,000 works. Many of these pieces are the result of his collaborations with prestigious haute couture houses such as Balenciaga, Givenchy, Balmain, Piguet, Rochas... This year marks the 20th anniversary of René Gruau's death, the perfect occasion to honor his creative legacy through a retrospective of his most emblematic works.
The works of poster artist René Gruau, part of Galerie Pentcheff, are featured in the exhibition L'Élégance, taking place from September 27, 2024 to January 19, 2025 in the city of Seoul. Galerie KT&G Sangsang Madang is hosting this major retrospective, featuring works by the artist from Galerie Pentcheff's Gruau collection. The exhibition promises to unveil pieces never before exhibited, offering a unique opportunity to discover Gruau's artistic universe for the first time in Korea.
From Seoul to Marseilles, designer René Gruau honored at Galerie Pentcheff
René Gruau, whose talent marked the world of fashion and advertising in the 20th century on an international scale, is revalued in the new permanent exhibition at Galerie Pentcheff.
Open since October 3, 2024, this new exhibition celebrates numerous artists from the 19th and 20th centuries, including Alfred Lombard, César Baldaccini, Jean Baptiste Olive, Jacques Martin Ferrières, Bernard Buffet, Alfred Casile and many others. But it's the artist René Gruau who takes pride of place in this exhibition, taking over an entire room in the Galerie Pentcheff to bear witness to the imprint he left on fashion and advertising illustration, as well as on popular culture. Visitors can discover his iconic advertisements and posters designed for fashion houses such as Blizzand in the 1970s, as well as those created for prestigious cabarets including the Moulin Rouge. It's also an opportunity to discover the women who populate Gruau's universe, through his youthful drawings and gouaches, in black and red hues on a white background, representative of his advertising for the Rouge Baiser cosmetics brand.
