From Sol LeWitt to Yayoi Kusama and beyond, exploring Louis Vuitton’s enduring fusion of luxury, art, and iconic fashion

In partnership with Louis Vuitton

A couture canvas for visionary collaborations

Fusing the lustrous universes of luxury, art, and popular culture, Louis Vuitton has cemented its reputation for cultivating artist collaborations that have repeatedly captured – and sometimes even defined – the cultural zeitgeist. The LVMH-owned Maison looks back at several decades of fruitful exchanges with artists in which, more often than not, Louis Vuitton took risks by giving access to its most recognizable designs for artistic interventions. Take, for example, the longstanding collaboration with Japanese artist <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/11158/Takashi-Murakami">Takashi Murakami</a>: It first took off in the early 2000s when Murakami reinterpreted the Maison’s signature Monogram in multicolored variations, thus introducing what was then an entirely new phenomenon of limited edition ‘It bags’. Even before the advent of social media, items from these collections were unmissable in the rarefied stratospheres of celebrity culture – and very hard to get your hands on. The fruitful collaboration with Murakami continued for more than a decade and helped shape the way Louis Vuitton would go on to engage with boundary-pushing interpretations of its iconic designs by contemporary artists.

A recent collaboration with <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7763/Yayoi-Kusama">Yayoi Kusama</a> was bound to become a new reference point, emblematic of the current era. Kusama’s unique brand of hypnotic minimalism often takes the form of irregularly spotted organic shapes. Louis Vuitton first collaborated with Kusama in 2012 on a far-ranging collection, which included a variety of staples and bags. A decade on, to mark ten years of creative exchanges between Kusama and Louis Vuitton, the collaboration was revived and built on to include not only a more expansive product offer, but also a fully immersive visual landscape. The result was a worldwide takeover of Louis Vuitton spaces; physical and AR interventions across numerous countries, and a city-wide celebratory launch in Tokyo – all in tribute to the unique vision of these legendary artists.

While we often think of art and fashion collaborations as a modern phenomenon or a mutually beneficial strategy, this cross-pollination between the disciplines is anything but new. Both dealing with visual culture and an expression of the ungraspable spirit of the time, designers and artists draw inspiration from each other’s practices, and ask similar questions about the connections between intangible leanings and trends, and their visual and material expression in our everyday lives. Louis Vuitton’s close relationship with art dates back to nearly a century ago when Gaston-Louis Vuitton, the founder’s grandson, began commissioning artists to collaborate with the Maison on advertisements, perfume bottles, and windows. Over the years, they have worked with some of the biggest names in Modern art and design, including <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6770/Sol-LeWitt">Sol LeWitt</a>, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6748/James-Rosenquist">James Rosenquist</a>, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6944/Jeff-Koons">Jeff Koons</a>, and <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8384/Olafur-Eliasson">Olafur Eliasson</a>. In its Espaces Louis Vuitton, it has also hosted exhibitions by such artists as <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7037/Sophie-Calle">Sophie Calle</a>, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/11122/Dan-Flavin">Dan Flavin</a>, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6737/Alberto-Giacometti">Alberto Giacometti</a>, and <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/search?q=Gerhard%20Richter">Gerhard Richter</a>. In 2014, LVHM opened the Frank Gehry-designed Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, which became a must-see destination for any art enthusiast.

While Koons, Murakami, and Kusama might be amongst the most recognizable names in contemporary art today, with their highly identifiable signature styles and crossover to popular culture, these are not the only types of artists with whom Louis Vuitton collaborates. Since 2019, the Maison has released some of its most thought-provoking art collaborations under the Artycapucines&nbsp;line, selecting contemporary names known to art-world insiders and connoisseurs. Based on the sought-after Capucines bag – which was first introduced in 2013, and named after the Parisian street, Rue Neuve-des-Capucines, where Louis Vuitton opened their first atelier in 1854 – the Artycapucines&nbsp;bags have become a canvas and sculptural material in the hands of names such as <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6914/Daniel-Buren">Daniel Buren</a>, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7461/Urs-Fischer">Urs Fischer</a>, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8519/Ugo-Rondinone">Ugo Rondinone</a>, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/19717/Alex-Israel">Alex Israel</a>, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7301/Beatriz-Milhazes">Beatriz Milhazes</a>, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/15961/Donna-Huanca">Donna Huanca</a>, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7175/Vik-Muniz">Vik Muniz</a>, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/9242/Park-Seo-Bo">Park Seo-Bo</a>, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/20763/Tschabalala-Self">Tschabalala Self</a>, Kennedy Yanko, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7401/Gregor-Hildebrandt">Gregor Hildebrandt</a>, and <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/9591/Zhao-Zhao">Zhao Zhao</a>, among others.

Turning these artists’ visions into reality is no small feat, it is a deeply engaged process of developing some of the most challenging artistic visions into reality through artisanal savoir-faire and expertise. Take, for example, interdisciplinary artist Donna Huanca, whose works are often derived from live performances and are created as integral parts of her tableaux vivants. Speaking about her practice, Huanca once said: ‘My work is a reaction to our present moment – a time of fierce acceleration and disembodiment. The goal of my work is to scar the viewer’s memory, to bring them back to their body by triggering senses with a textural language.’ Huanca’s reimagining of the Artycapucines&nbsp;handbag saw a haptically and visually lush combination of cowhide and taurillon leather, with silver-colored hardware, all rendered in the painterly style of her large-scale canvases in her favored palette of blues and purples that bleed into each other.

A new range of artist collaborations revealed this fall, include eye-catching Artycapucine&nbsp;editions by painter Ewa Juszkiewicz; <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7432/Liza-Lou">Liza Lou</a>, who’s known for room-sized installations covered entirely in beadwork; irreverent painter duo Tursic & Mille; Ziping Wang, recognized for her busy Pop-art style paintings; and Billie Zangewa, who makes handsewn mixed-media tapestries. Judging from the wide range of media these artists work with, and the variety of visions they bring to the table, it seems that Louis Vuitton is more committed than ever to taking risks and seeing its classics reenvisioned in the most challenging of ways. 

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During Paris+ par Art Basel 2023, Louis Vuitton is showcasing a curated selection of collaborations and original artworks by leading international artists, including pieces by Murakami, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8471/Damien-Hirst">Damien Hirst</a>, Stephen Sprouse, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7373/Richard-Prince">Richard Prince</a>, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7152/Yan-Pei-Ming">Yan Pei-Ming</a>, and Refik Anadol. Additionally, the occasion marks the launch of the fifth wave of the Artycapucines&nbsp;collection and announces Louis Vuitton’s new role as an Associate Partner of Art Basel globally, highlighting the brand’s longstanding commitment to the arts.
Hili Perlson is a writer and editor based in Berlin and Palermo.
Published on October 18, 2023.&nbsp;
Caption for full-bleed images: Exhibition 'Louis Vuitton &', Jing Harajuku, Tokyo (2021). Young Louis, Yan Pei-Ming (2015); Finding LV: AI Data painting, Refik Anadol (2019); Young Louis, Alex Katz (2017). Photo credits: © Louis Vuitton Malletier.

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From Sol LeWitt to Yayoi Kusama and beyond, exploring Louis Vuitton’s enduring fusion of luxury, art, and iconic fashion

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