A Most Irreverent Collaboration

Urs Fischer x Louis Vuitton plus Arty Cat

Today we are going to talk about two art exhibitions, the first, a series of store windows (serious art) and the second, a series of huge sculptures of a cat (verdict still out on that one). I will begin my missive in true Garrison Keillor style, (without the sexual harassment part, of course), with a rundown of how things are going in my own particular Lake Woebegone, where all the men are improbably attractive and all the women are impossibly thin.

So, two exhibitions, both outdoors of course, since art museums have been closed for a long time and art galleries are closed now, too. A motley selection of stores are still open, among them, the local Bricolage/Bricomarché (French versions of Home Depot). But you can’t buy everything they sell, only the essential items, which does not include picture frames, but probably (hopefully) does include plumbing supplies. This latest assault on our liberties occurred a few weeks ago, with all of France now joining Paris in being restricted to travels no further than 10 km (6 miles) from home. My carte de sejour has my address on it so I move around freely, although I must admit I have never paid attention to exactly how far from home I roam in my pursuit of something, anything, cultural. Curfew is back to 19h00 (7:00 p.m.) now that we have joined the US in ‘spring forward’ time change.

Fewer stores may be open but I am happy to report that chocolatiers and patisseries are, for the moment anyhow, considered essential, as they should be. For the week before Easter, going to chocolatiers took up some enjoyable hours in my day, especially since we had a taste of spring like weather for a few of those days. And because spending my days on my computer looking for somewhere to get vaccinated seemed not an especially great way to maximize my time. When Trump & Co. were ‘in charge’ of what happened in the US vis-a-vis Covid-19 (and unfortunately everything else), I thought that those of us here were better off here. But I don’t feel that way so much now that Joe is in charge and things seem somewhat back to normal (although with a member of Congress walking around the U.S. Capitol wearing a mask that reads ‘Trump won’, normal may not be the right word). Never mind, I’ll walk as many places as I can, and when I’m in the metro, I’ll just stay away from those guys (and it is mostly guys) who refuse to wear masks or wear them under their noses.

Figure 1. Louis Vuitton Boutique, Ave. George V, Paris

So, to begin. The day I went (by metro) to Avenue George V to see the Manolo Valdés sculptures, which I talked about a couple weeks ago, the first thing I saw when I hiked up the stairs to the sidewalk, was the Louis Vuitton megastore. (Figure 1) There is always a line of people waiting to get in, with guards, serious big guys in uniforms, controlling the number of people permitted entry. And this has nothing to do with the pandemic, it was this way well before the pandemic. And it is not because they are giving anything away at Louis Vuitton. That’s for sure. Anyhow, on the day I was there, because all stores had been ordered closed the previous day and because most of the people who live in the 8eme have maisons secondaire and that was where they had all fled, not knowing that the restrictions that Paris had just been placed under would follow them to the provinces. Anyhow, because the store was closed and the neighborhood had emptied out, it was easy to see the window displays, for a change. Which were by the artist Urs Fischer.

Do you know Urs Fischer? The first time I saw his work, I mean really took notice of it was at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco in 2017. A new director, Max Hollein, had taken over a few months earlier. And he brought with him some great ideas, one of which I will tell you about here, and I thought to myself, gosh things are really looking up in San Francisco with this dynamic new director of the Fine Arts Museums. And then he left, a little less than two year later, to become the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the 10th director in that museum’s history and the 10th white male selected to be director in that museum’s history. Anyhow, upon arriving in San Francisco, Hollein launched a very cool initiative. He invited a living artist to enter into dialogue with the paintings and sculpture at the Legion of Honor Museum with his/her own paintings and sculptures. The focus for Fischer’s invitation was Rodin because 2017 marked the centenary of the sculptor’s death and for some reason, the Bay Area is particularly rich in Rodins. Fischer’s work is so varied that the experience of wandering through a museum whose collection I know so well, and finding unexpected and playful juxtapositions with that collection was surprenant, même etonnant. Urs Fischer paintings and sculptures set amidst and among the museum’s paintings and sculptures was a stellar reminder that an average permanent collection can become lively and engaging and relevant, too, in the right circumstances.

Here are a few examples of what Fischer did at the Legion. For Rodin’s ‘The Thinker’ in the museum’s courtyard, (Cour d’Honneur) Fischer invited the public to create their own clay sculptures in response to Rodin’s sculpture. Fischer selected a few of these efforts and had them cast in bronze, but in such a way as to still look like clay. (Figure 2, Figure 3) These he scattered around the courtyard, around The Thinker. The museum explained it this way, by inviting people to participate in the creative process, Fischer was referencing Rodin’s own collaborative casting practices for all the ‘original’ Thinker(s) that exist today. Some of which were cast after Rodin’s death. A collaboration from beyond the grave? That’s an interesting spin on the playful process of dethroning a master, or at least poking fun at one.

Figure 4. Urs Fischer Chair with Hands, Legion of Honor, SF

Fischer had fun with the museum’s furniture collection, too. In one of the rococo galleries, Fischer placed a resin cast of a wooden chair carved years earlier by his father. (Figure 4) Unattached hands are attached to the seat and back of the chair. To see those hands gripping the chair in a room of intricate and exquisite objects, where ‘Do Not Touch’ and “Do Not Sit’ signs are ubiquitous, is a glorious and gory juxtaposition which makes you want to cry out and laugh at the same time. Cute and creepy.

Figure 5. JR and the disappearing Louvre, 2016

Figure 6. Christo & Jeanne Claude, The Gates, Central Park, 2005

We can think of asking an artist to respond to the permanent collection of a museum as a way of looking at old things through new eyes, first the artist’s and then our eyes. Christo’s fabric Wrappings of the Arc de Triomphe this coming September will be just such an occasion, just as JR’s monumental paper trompe l’oeils of the Louvre, (Figure 5) was a few years ago. Engaging the public by employing the public as volunteer, unpaid labor is another device used by all three artists. Christo needed legions of volunteers for his Central Park Project (Figure 6) as did JR for his Louvre project. Fischer required fewer volunteers but the aspect of chance and potential for chaos were present for all three.

One of Fischer’s works for the Legion was a sculpture of a young man in casual contemporary clothes, in wax. On his head, a wick, which was lit and which eventually collapsed into a puddle. (Figure 7) Christo’s miles of fabric came down after a few days. JR’s Louvre trompe l’oeil of paper was destroyed as soon as people started walking on it.

Figure 7, Urs Fischer, Legion of Honor, SF

Figure 8. Urs Fischer, 'The Kiss' after Rodin

In addition to life size wax statue that melted and disappeared at the Legion, Fisher has made a full size chalet of sourdough bread loaves, foam and wood. He has sculpted another Rodin sculpture, The Kiss, of modeling clay. For that one, Fischer invited museum goers to manipulate the statue during the run of the exhibition. (Figure 8) The initial manipulations were modest but eventually people got into it and began to pull off limbs and disfigure faces. Fischer travels easily between disciplines and materials although he seems particularly attracted to materials that will change, dissolve, disappear over time, often over very little time, contradicting the notion of fine art and permanence. He’s a little pop, a little surrealist, a little dadaist, a lot performance art.

Figure 9. Louis Vuitton / Marc Jacobs Exhibition, MAD, Paris, 2012

But we are here to talk about Urs Fischer and the windows at Louis Vuitton (LV). A few years ago (yikes, I just looked it up, it was 2012) I saw an exhibition at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs on Louis Vuitton, the founder and Marc Jacobs, the artistic director (1997 to 2014). (Figure 9) The exhibition focused on the former’s 19th century industrialization and the latter’s 21st century globalization. I learned a few fun facts. For example, it wasn’t until Marc Jacobs came on the scene that LV started to offer a clothing line. But of course clothing has been central to everything LV does, since the beginning, since 1854, since what else but clothing (well mostly clothing) was LV luggage meant to hold? And Louis Vuitton’s timing was perfect, because as rail and then automobile travel became more common, people had to get their stuff from one place to another in more or less presentable condition. And LV luggage was practical, the trunks were, and still are, waterproof, to prevent accidental damage to the items inside when it rains. And since they are waterproof, they can be flat (other luggage was rounded so that the water ran off) and therefore stackable. (Figure 10) The LV monogram pattern, designed by Louis Vuitton’s son, Georges in 1896, eventually replaced the monogram people had previously and reasonably requested on their luggage - their own. Brand logo as status symbol was born.The interlocking L and V with floral pattern is one of the most recognizable logos in the world. (Figure 11)

Figure 12. Stephen Sprouse in Collaboration with Louis Vuitton, 2001

In 1997, Marc Jacobs became the creative director at LV. Charged with introducing women’s wear and men’s wear lines, he also began collaborating with contemporary artists, architects and designers. The collaborations really took off in 2001 when Jacobs convinced his bosses to allow the street artist Stephen Sprouse to ‘tag’ that is, to create a graffiti version of the LV name and monogram. “Louis Vuitton” and “LV” were painted over the traditional brown-on-brown print—the first time the monogram had been modified. (Figure 12) The bags were a sensation. The ’fashion and art’ formula that Jacobs created is now a fashion industry standard. In the years since 2001, collaborations with artists has become central to LV’s identity, with artists like the dot queen Yayoi Kusama, (Figure 13) the riff king Jeff Koons (Figure 14) and the manga king Takashi Murakami (Figure 15) among many, many others, being invited to try their hand at limited editions of LV handbags, purses, totes, with names like Speedy, Neverfull, Noé, Capucines, Twist, Looping, Pochette Accessoires, Lockit,, Petite Boîte Chapeau. Can I stop now? BTW, things get a little chummy at the Foundation Louis Vuitton where I have seen exhibitions of Kusama (brilliant) and Murakami (an acquired taste).

Figure 15. Takashi Murakami in Collaboration with Louis Vuitton

Here is what collaborations with LV can mean to an artist. In 2019, a painting by the artist Tschabalala Self came up for auction at Christie’s in London with an estimated sale price of $51,000 to $76,000. The work sold for $471,322. A few days later, another work by Self came up for sale but it wasn’t one you could hang on a wall. It was a LV purse, called the ArtyCapucines (named after LV’s original address and the classic LV bag) which Sale and five other contemporary artists had been asked to use as a canvas for their own creations.

One of those other artists was Urs Fischer. His artist’s statement reads, "(Artists) tend to be like complicated children who still live with their parents and don’t want to move out. They don’t go out as much as they should, to challenge themselves. And I often think that galleries can be confining spaces for me in a way—not physically, but in terms of their communicative reach.”

Figure 16. Urs Fischer in Collaboration with Louis Vuitton, 2019

So let’s see, what did Fischer design for LV in 2019, to challenge himself? An all white purse with a choice of one of six hand-painted silicone casts of an egg, a green apple, a banana, a mushroom, a carrot, and a strawberry hanging from a gold-plated chain. (Figure 16) Hmm, I guess I understand what he means about artists not getting out enough.

In 2021, LV asked Fischer back. Very few of the artists or architects or designers who have collaborated with LV since Stephen Sprouse’s original collaboration have messed with the iconic logo. But Fischer did this time, stretching and manipulating it into a decorative pattern that pushes it almost beyond recognition. Fischer’s versions, which he calls his “memory sketches,” riff off Georges Vuitton’s 1896 geometric web of flowers and initials with a childlike softness and an undulating intensity. (Figure 17) Which you can see at the boutique on Avenue George V, too, because these patterns in changing colors are on an endless loop in the store windows.

Figure 17. Urs Fischer in Collaboration with Louis Vuitton, 2021

Figure 18. Urs Fischer in Collaboration with Louis Vuitton, 2021

And for this collaboration, Fischer didn’t stick to purses, he was commissioned to design a capsule collection (sneakers, shawls, dresses, jackets and lots of purses, naturally)(Figure 18). Available in black and red and black and white, Fischer’s designs have been specially formatted to the contours of each garment, adjusted to fit each garment. The print even follows the contours of the body. In some pieces, tuffetage, a technique that incorporates swatches of velvet on top of each other, gives it a three-dimensional, almost psychedelic quality. (Figure 19) Very Vasarelli.(Figure 20)

In addition to the stuff you can buy, Fischer has created a world in which his stuff can live, specifically sculptures of whimsical characters, like a cat asleep in a banana skin, an avocado meeting an egg, a cat holding a lightbulb, and a bird carrying a peach. You can visit all of these object in ‘real life,’ if being granted permission to enter a LV boutique is considered real life. (Figure 21, Figure 22) But until stores open again here, we will have to content ourselves with the short video of a model wearing the Fischer designed clothes playing with and sometimes taunting the cast of characters created by Fischer to populate this world. Also available on a silk square. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z27RWxGSXxE

Figure 21. Urs Fischer in Collaboration with Louis Vuitton, 2021

Figure 22. Urs Fischer in Collaboration with Louis Vuitton, 2021

In the 2021 collection for Louis Vuitton, Fischer presents his vision of the ways images and artifacts wander around together and the strange things that happen along the way. So, there is the capsule collection which plays around with the company’s iconic logo. Then there are the playful sculptures that provide a Cat in the Hat, Alice in Wonderland context for the collection. And then there is the digital backgrounds that enliven everything, including and maybe especially the young model who wears the clothes and interacts with the sculptures. As one commentator puts it, ‘this is Urs Fischer’s world…and we’re just shopping in it.’

Figure 23. The Cats, Philippe Geluck on the Champs Élyées with Arc de Triomphe in distance

Oh right. I promised The Cat. Twenty larger than life-size sculptures currently displayed along the Champs Elysees.(Figure 23) They were created by the Belgium cartoonist, Philippe Geluck who brought the Cat to life in 1983, 38 years ago. While I was not overly enthralled by them as sculptures, probably because I didn’t know the Cat before this, I would definitely read the comic strip now that I do know about it. In an interview I saw with Philippe Geluck, I found him to be a charming guy whose comic strips fight the good fight with wit and determination. I am a fan of cartoons that refer to art and artists as they point out human foibles and follies. And that Mr. Geluck does quite well. I will tell you about two statues. One is the Cat as the martyr St. Sebastian who was tied to a tree and then shot with arrows. There is added poignancy here with the arrows replaced by crayons, in memory of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists who were murdered by terrorists. (Figure 24, Figure 25) Another sculpture shows the Cat as Atlas with the globe on his back. (Figure 26) In the globe are empty plastic containers, a reference to all the plastic polluting our oceans and filling our landfills.

Figure 26. The Cat as Atlas, Philippe Geluck, 2021

Is there any controversy here ? You bet, this is France. Although the City of Paris did not pay one centime for the exhibition, several of the sculptures have been sold already and a gallery specializing in comics, located on nearby Avenue Matignon, that just happens to represent Mr Geluck, has other sculptures and preparatory drawings which can be viewed on a virtual tour of the gallery and which are available for sale at the gallery, by click and collect, of course. This did not go down well at all since galleries are closed here and only Mr. Geluck has been given the Champs Elysees to advertise his art. But if you are in Paris, you should definitely go to see it, it’s free, it’s the Champs and the Koons Bouquet of Flowers is just a few steps away.

A Most Irreverent Collaboration

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The Wise Women of Valdés

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