Another art history lesson from Albert Kriemler at Akris—this one with a bittersweet ending. Kriemler discovered Romanian multimedia artist Geta Bratescu at the Documenta 14 art fair in Athens, Greece, and Kassel, Germany, last year. The nonagenarian also represented her country at the Venice Biennale in 2017.
Kriemler was so taken by Bratescu’s use of color and her collage work and their joy-inducing properties that he approached her about a collaboration, the lifeblood of his Swiss label. She agreed, and in February, he visited Bratescu at her Bucharest studio. In April he presented her with his sketches and she “gave the green light.” But she never got to see the collection come to life; the 92-year-old artist died two weeks ago.
Bratescu worked for decades, and Kriemler’s varied collection spanned a few of them. To start, he reproduced her magnet sculptures of the 1970s (photographed in black and white on a Communist-era Bucharest street) on characteristically streamlined dresses and separates. The magnets also turned up as hardware closures on sleek black pantsuits. Bratescu’s later work became progressively more playful in spirit (the Romanian revolution coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1989). Her 2011 collaged self-portrait, in an electric shade of yellow with red lips and blue googly eyes, is easily the most audacious piece Kriemler has ever reproduced. More in keeping with the usually reserved Akris aesthetic were his riffs on Bratescu’s graphic collages.
The most impressive work this season was actually Kriemler’s own. It’s been a big week for pleats in Paris, from Valentino to Balmain. Kriemler’s plissé soleil (sunray pleats) were stitched flat, a technological feat.
