NO stranger to collaborations, Louis Vuitton is known for enlisting artists to work on creative projects, with names like Cindy Sherman, Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince having previously put their name to products. Stephen Sprouse’s graffiti inspired bags and Yayoi Kusama’s dotty offerings are some of the best-known projects for the house, while in 2014 they opened the Fondation Louis Vuitton museum in Paris. This year Louis Vuitton partnered with contemporary artist Jeff Koons for the limited-edition collection.
Jeff Koons is famous for his balloon animals, his works featuring adult actress ex-wife Ilona Staller, and for rendering Michael Jackson and his pet monkey in white and gold porcelain.
The Koons-created line is a collection of art history replicas including famous paintings and sculptures which feature a blue mirrored ball intended to be looked into like the one he did for Lady Gaga as a sculpture with such a ball for her album.
For the capsule, dubbed ‘Masters’, Van Gogh’s “Wheat Fields and Cypresses”, Rubens’ “Tiger Hunt”, and Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” are among the works which appear on bags. Like a super high-end version of something you might find peddled outside the Louvre, they brilliantly capture Koons’ mastery of kitsch and artistic appropriation – he’s even been allowed to design a take on the signature LV monogram with his own initials.
The ‘Masters’ collection will be available from April 28th, 2017.