Mats Gustafson, Figures and Faces, Röhsska Museum, through May 4, 2014
Swedish illustrator Mats Gustafson has achieved cult status in the fashion world. His watercolour and pastel fashion drawings embody the feeling of the clothes more precisely than any photograph ever could. The characteristically light and elegant lines of his brush-strokes capture the silhouettes with such virtuosity that they become almost tactile - whether it is the slightly robust poeticism of Yohji Yamamoto's challenges to the stereotypes of traditional beauty, or the strict elegance of Chanel's clean lines. Gustafson's illustrations carry with them a slight impression of melancholy and beauty, and through his drawings he seems to verge upon the very essence of fashion, somehow making it everlasting. Gustafson was greatly inspired by Antonio Lopez, the Puerto Rican-American illustrator who tragically lost his life to AIDS. Gustafson began his career as an illustrator for the Swedish fashion behemoth H&M, staying there until 1978 - which is when his work caught the eye of the editor of British Vogue. Later on, Gustafson moved to New York, where he worked with such publications as American Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Visionaire, as well as with the high-end fashion houses of Chanel, Gigli, Comme des Garçons, Yohji Yamamoto and Christian Dior, among others.
The exhibition spans over thirty years of Gustafson's career, featuring both the artist's original illustrations and the numerous fashion magazines that he has worked with.
Vasagatan 37-39
411 37 Göteborg
www.rohsska.se