THE FOURTH CHAPTER
This year, the fourth chapter of Louis Vuitton’s Artycapucines Collection sees six more leading contemporary artists manifest their unique visions in the timeless Capucines bag
WITH ITS DISTINCTIVE design and silhouette, the Louis Vuitton Capucines bag has proven to be the ideal “blank canvas” for further artistic expression. And thus, the Artycapucines collection was born. Continuing a stunning creative streak that has lasted for three chapters, this year, for the 2022 Artycapucines edition, Maison Louis Vuitton invites six global artists to bring their unique visions to the bag named after Rue Nueve-des-Capucines, the place where Louis Vuitton opened his first store in 1854. Once again, the icon shows the world how it can inspire unbridled creativity.
The six chosen artists chose to transform this blank canvas into contemporary artworks in this chapter hail from all corners of the globe. They are Daniel Buren, Kennedy Yanko, Park Seo-Beo, Amélie Bertrand, Peter Marino, and Ugo Rondinone.
A definite highlight would be the interpretation by one of the world’s leading contemporary artists, Daniel Buren. His Capucines features a double-sided trompe-l’oeil design where he plays with his long-term artistic themes in an ingenious “doubledesign” concept. The handcrafted handle of his Capucines bag is a resin semicircle, polished to a satin-like finish, which becomes a complete circle mirrored on both sides of the bag. Buren also employs his trademark black-and-white stripes in stunning fashion, and interestingly required bespoke changes to the Capucines’ usual design. The bag is further designed as symmetrical halves – each side in differently-coloured Louis Vuitton Taurillon leather with a matte treatment.
This occasion also sees the application of Buren’s trademark stripes in other colour variations. Combinations of white-orange, white-green, black-white and red-black evoke Buren’s Observatory of Light – a large-scale artwork installed on the exterior of the Foundation Louis Vuitton in 2016. This bold visual of “doubling” effects continue in the bag’s pair of redesigned semicircular flaps – the classic Capucines has only one – and the two metal LV logos, each matching the colour of its respective sides.
Moving on, we have the work of American sculptor, painter and installation artist Kennedy Yanko who works in found metal and “paint skin,” a material she makes by pouring large amounts of paint, letting it dry, and using the sheet-like form to create new sculptural compositions. Yanko recreated the aesthetic of her artworks for the Capucines by 3D-printing the bag’s body with rust and weathering effects, before expert artisans introduce a special patina and delicate touches of gold pigment that emphasizes the paint skin’s ripples and folds. Then the leather is applied, worked and stiffened. Besides being visually striking, Yanko’s Artycapucines is also remarkably versatile. The two redesigned, industrialinspired enchapes allow the bag’s leather handle to be removed, transforming it elegantly into an elegant clutch Capucines. The bag’s strap, with its Monogram charms and “Yanko” signature, can also be removed and attached to a separate small leather envelope pocket that nests within the bag.
Korean master Park Seo-Bo celebrated his 2016 work, the Écriture series, informs this richly embellished Artycapucines bag. The paintings are meticulously translated into bag form with the assistance of his grandson, designer Park Jifan. To recreate the imagery of the Écriture paintings, the bag’s calfskin is first treated with a brushstroke-like coup de pinceau effect before a highly detailed 3D rubber injection is carefully applied. To ensure that
each bag is a perfect reproduction, the bright red and burgundy leather is then hand-finished to ensure a deep patina. The bag’s interior lining of natural linen canvas reproduces the back of the original painting and features Park’s signature print in the central pocket. The handle is made of polished walnut mounted on a metal frame while the bag’s leather-lined enchapes and LV logo are inlayed with leather that matches the deep burgundy colour, while the four studs on the bottom are inspired by the screws Park has long used on his work, now adorned with a Louis Vuitton Monogram flower.
Inspired by the atmosphere of nightlife during summer, Amélie Bertrand presents the first ever glow-in-the-dark Artycapucines. Born in 1982 in Cannes, Bertrand’s visual universe of synthetic and skewed perspectives and shallow horizons is both entirely imagined and completely believable. For the Artycapucines, recurring elements in Bertrand’s work – the oversized flowers and chain – are attached to the bag as visually-arresting ornamentation, and are also painted as shadows on the body of the bag. While the gradated colour scheme of the bag is created using a meticulously hand-sprayed technique, an innovative pigment makes the resin handle, interior and exterior tile lines, studs on the base and stitching on the shoulder strap radiate a warm phosphorescence that adds a psychedelic touch to compliment Bertrand’s hallucinatory images.
The striking and powerful all-black Artycapucines by Peter Marino is based upon an antique studded trunk. The body of this completely monochrome bag consists of a precise patchwork which, in turn, is made of hand-cut strips of Louis Vuitton calfskin. Furthermore, 315 lightweight studs are applied to achieve this potent and tactile look and fill. The exterior boasts an entirely new and exclusive type of slide-bold closure, inspired by Marino’s vintage trunk. When folded over the front, the bag’s flap can be secured with a black metal bar that features an enamel Louis Vuitton Monogram flower. The leather handle is braided and assembled by hand, and the bag is lined with black leather and comes with an adjustable strap for easy carrying.
And lastly, there’s the joyful design by Swissborn artist Ugo Rondinone, who is recognised as one of the major voices of his generation. His Artycapucines are like a homage to the many visual motifs and components that make up his oeuvre. The stunning harlequin pattern, a nod to the artist’s long-time aesthetic exploration of clowns, is created by painstakingly hand-embroidering nearly 15,000 small beads to the bag’s leather body to create a sense of volume. The process takes more than 100 hours for each bag. Among the nearly 500 beads in each diamond are 3D-printed flowers inspired by a series of sculptures produced by Rondinone in 1988 and are reminiscent of those in the Louis Vuitton pattern. The handle, meanwhile, is a hand-crafted translucent resin rainbow – another visual motif that Rondinone has long used in his painting and sculpture. Covered with a highly reflective and scratch resistant metallic coating, the flap is decorated with a flower designed to resemble a clown. The bag is finished with a solid metal, reflective LV logo and clown-shaped zip pull.
The celebrated Artycapucines collection remains a testament to Louis Vuitton’s long-running desire to put its innovative spirit and artisanal expertise to the service of artists and creativity. As a final note, each bag in this chapter will be available as limited editions of 200 pieces each, or 50 per colour variation for Daniel Buren’s.