A Study into Artistic Evolution..

On May the 6th 2026 the Met Gala official dress code was labelled Fashion is Art, to an artist this was a perfect opportunity to see what the designers & celebrities could produce & then go further & evolve...

There were some amazing designs but to me one stood out in particular & no surprise the dress was worn by my special muse Kendall Jenner -Designed in collaboration with Zac Posen(Creative Director - GAP)!

They took the theme - ran with it & did what many didn't & managed to evolve art.

This is what Zac Posen

said about his creation -

"The starting point was the Winged Victory of Samothrace — a powerful symbol of strength, femininity and freedom. It's timeless, an icon of femininity from the Hellenistic period that captures high-level realism and movement of space and air. It represents both power and fluidity, which felt incredibly relevant. Art isn't static — it moves through time and continues to inspire,"

With this quote its not hard to see why such a design to be the foundation to my latest piece.

But First let me go through to the beginning of my kendallesque Artwork - What goes around comes around and that doesn't change with my artistic journey featuring Kendall Jenner.

The first piece i painted of her was roughly two years ago.

I was looking for someone or something that could literally fill my artistic cup & my inspirational theme was Beauty.

When you dig deep down in the rabbit hole that art takes you down, it can be wonderfully mysterious & I've found the synchronicity between fait & faith is often overlooked by artists !!! I think faith in ones ability is so important & with that faith fait is born & that's when the ideas make there way into reality.

I sore a post written by Kendall Jenner & what was wrote was something of true delicacy & sophistication, with those words I had found my muse & the picture she posted matched my audacity - so this is when the evolution of a certain Madame X began....

Now I time travel back to the MET Gala & what I enjoyed about what Zac & Kendall created was what I sore as a very clever use of evolution...

So lets time travel back to the late 1800's & we find a certain painting that now has huge significance which can act as a benchmark towards how we viewed art & how we dealt with exposure!

The painting I'm referring to is Madame X, painted by John Singer Sargent - not to go into huge detail, but he was forced to paint the arm strap back on the Shoulder of the socialite of her time Virginie Amelie Avegno Gautreau - At the MET Gala it was interesting to see who would copy Sargent & who would copy & evolve!!!

Now lets look at three examples together...

Which is the copy & which is the evolution?

& who actually noticed??

A great artist is a great magician, you think your looking at reality but that's the trick & a bigger trick is coming, but you will never know its coming - So even though Zac Posen & Kendall Jenner tell us a story about mythology - the real story is an evolution of art through reality, what a brilliant trick.

Now it was up to me to do what an artist does best and evolve on that idea with my own audacity!

I have numerous little hidden surprises for the keen artistic eye to find & I think its up to the art lover to find these surprises - so these are secrets I will not bare, but I have left all one that is very obvious & needs no explanation!

I hope this painting brings great joy, fun & discussion - as its a piece that shows the power of the human body & how we have evolved but still magnetised to audacious sophistication, some will adore it & some will be shocked like we are living in the 1800s & to me that is wonderfully fun...Enjoy

Rob J Reid

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/09f4db_a11ffb479d6d4d3fb0448c4b8e9121b3/480p/mp4/file.mp4