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| The 2022 ArtyCapucines collection from Louis Vuitton, born from the luxury brand's collaboration with six leading contemporary artists / Courtesy of Louis Vuitton |
By Park Han-sol
Louis Vuitton has unveiled this week its 2022 ArtyCapucines bag collection, born from the French luxury house's collaboration with six renowned contemporary artists.
Among them is "Dansaekhwa" (monochrome painting) master Park Seo-bo, who became the first Korean creator to be part of the project.
Launched in 2019, the ArtyCapucines collection aims to marry fashion and art by transforming the brand's iconic Capucines handbags ― named after Rue Neuve-des-Capucines in Paris, where the maison's first store opened in 1854 ― into a blank canvas for leading international artists.
Six creators have been invited each year to bring their creative vision to life, including Jean-Michel Othoniel, Henry Taylor, Beatriz Milhhazes and Zeng Fanzhi.
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| The Capucines handbag featuring Dansaekhwa master Park Seo-bo's 2016 painting from his signature "Ecriture" series / Courtesy of Louis Vuitton |
The design of Park's bag features an original 2016 painting from his decades-long signature "Ecriture" series ― specifically, the latest stage called "color-Ecriture."
As one of the founding members of the formative Dansaekhwa movement that emerged in the early 1970s in Korea, Park has long emphasized the meditative aspects of art production that come from the purposeless and endless repetition of activity.
The handbag has recreated the original painting's tactile texture, which was produced by Park who used pencils or flat-edged tools to repeatedly draw vertical lines on layers of still-wet hanji (traditional Korean paper made from the bark of mulberry trees), causing them to form narrow ridges.
Its bright red color also reflects the artist's fascination with the sumptuous hues found in nature which he then strove to transfer onto the canvas.
Other big-name contemporary artists who collaborated with Louis Vuitton for this year's collection are: Daniel Buren, Ugo Rondinone, Peter Marino, Kennedy Yanko and Amelie Bertrand.
French conceptual artist Buren's version features his trademark black-and-white stripes as well as trompe l'oeil design.
Swiss sculptor and painter Rondinone chose two archetypal motifs often seen in his oeuvre ― the clown and the rainbow ― for his ArtyCapucines creation. Its multicolored pattern was brought to life by hand-embroidering nearly 15,000 beads to the bag's body.
Meanwhile, French creator Bertrand's bag became the first Capucines to glow in the dark, emitting a warm phosphorescence to capture the hallucinatory, dreamlike atmosphere of summer night.
Each bag will be released in a limited edition of 200 pieces.
The entirety of Louis Vuitton's four-year ArtyCapucines collection ― 24 designs in total ― is also currently on view for the first time ever at the inaugural edition of the Paris+ par Art Basel fair, held at the Grand Palais Ephemere until Oct. 23.
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