Artist Françoise Pétrovitch On The Poetry And Professionalism Of Her Dior Lady Art Journey

Dior Lady Art

Welcome to the Dior Talks podcast series themed around the seventh edition of Dior Lady Art and hosted by Paris-based journalist Katya Foreman. For this year’s event, 11 artists from around the world have participated in a game of metamorphosis by rendering the iconic Lady Dior handbag as a unique piece of art.

For this latest episode we plunge into the universe of Françoise Pétrovitch to learn about her artist journey and childhood influences growing up in Chambery, an alpine town in the south of France. “I always regarded fine arts as a kind of Holy Grail, something amazing. But I didn't have that training,” says the artist who since the 1990s has produced one of the most powerful bodies of work on the French art scene.

With Pétrovitch, it all starts with a drawing, with her universe also extending to ceramics, ink washes, glass, painting, print and video. Subjects range from the fragility of nature and the body to intimacy between people and the psychological reasons that may draw us together.

The artist for this project approached the Lady Dior as a sculpture, reinterpreting the bag’s signature cannage motif in ink, and using the bird, a symbol of freedom and fragility, as a playful decorative accent, applied using a screen-printing technique on leather, for instance, or blown up on charms to add a fun, pop edge.

Colour plays out in gradient diffusions, like ink stains, as well as on metallic linings that invite a reflection on intimacy and interiority.

“I tried to find the same quality in leather and print that I have in my drawings. So there, we were really looking at colour juxtapositions. It was professional and at the same time very poetic, which I love,” says Pétrovitch.

Tune into the episode to learn more about her fascinating world.