Yahoo Lifestyle EXCLUSIVE: Louis Vuitton Shows Takashi Murakami Works at Art Basel Hong Kong
PARIS — When Takashi Murakami first joined forces with Louis Vuitton more than two decades ago, he got blowback for using the brand’s monogram motif in his paintings. Now the partnership that set the mold for collaborations between artists and luxury brands is being celebrated with a dedicated booth at Art Basel Hong Kong.
Hot on the heels of the reedition of the Louis Vuitton x Murakami collection, the French luxury house will present a selection of the Japanese artist’s works at the art show, set to run from Friday to Sunday at the Hong Kong Convention Center.
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A show partner for Art Basel Hong Kong, Louis Vuitton has previously showcased works by famed architect Frank Gehry at the Miami Beach and Paris editions of the prestigious art fair.
Visitors entering the Hong Kong booth, shaped like a metallic Vuitton trunk, will pass between a pair of Murakami’s large-scale statues, “Zoucho-kun” and “Tamon-kun,” and the “Superflat Jellyfish Eyes 1” screen, which all belong to the permanent collection of the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.
Works including sculptures, textiles and videos illustrate his signature style, set out in his Superflat Manifesto in 2000, which flattened the distinctions between “high” and “low” art, commercial and conceptual work, and Japanese and Western aesthetics.
The exhibition will also feature items from Murakami’s collaboration with Vuitton, which began with the Monogram Multicolore designs unveiled at the label’s spring 2003 show under then-creative director Marc Jacobs.
Among them are a Monogram Multicolore Marilyn Trunk from 2003, containing 33 Marilyn bags in the 33 colors of the signature motif, and a canvas and a Keepall bag in the hybrid Monogramouflage pattern he created in 2008.
Speaking to WWD in December, Murakami said that approach was considered disruptive at the time. “Part of the thing I was doing was to paint the monogram itself onto canvas and then present it as painting,” he said.
“I didn’t receive any specific criticism, but what I noted was that my artworks that were coming up at auction for maybe a year after I did the collaboration, the price was going down,” he recalled. “I still don’t think that in the contemporary art world of the time, it was so well received.”
These days, his work with Vuitton is an integral component of his practice. For his exhibition at the Kyoto Kyocera Museum of Art last year, he requested the use of a Vuitton Monogram Multicolore trunk to display alongside his “Flower Parent and Child” sculpture.
“The reason was because, in Japan, contemporary art is sort of a minor interest, whereas fashion is something everyone’s really, really interested in,” Murakami explained. “I thought it would be something good to attract Japanese audiences’ attention.”
Pietro Beccari, chairman and chief executive officer of Louis Vuitton, immediately agreed and the idea for reviving the collaboration quickly followed.
The second installment of the collection, featuring the Cherry Blossom motif, arrived in stores worldwide on March 21, in tandem with new campaign images featuring the line’s ambassador, Zendaya.
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