LOUIS VUITTON
The French maison invited six artists to join its Artycapucines collection, as each deliver their unique perspective into the iconic Capucines bag
THE CAPUCINES WAS first launched in 2013 and was named after the Parisian street on which Louis Vuitton opened his first store in 1854: Rue des Capucines. The bags quickly became contemporary classics, as the distinctive design and silhouette provided an ideal “black canvas.” And now, for the second year in a row, Louis Vuitton invites six artists to collaborate with the maison and customize its Capucines bags. The second wave of the Artycapucines collection celebrates international artists Beatriz Milhazes, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Josh Smith, Henry Taylor, Liu Wei and Zhao Zhao who have created beautifully imagined and stunningly worked versions of the iconic Capucines bag.
Beatriz Milhazes
Beatriz Milhazes is a Brazilian artist who has perfected a signature technique. She first paints onto a sheet of clear plastic then sticks it to a canvas and peels it off to leave behind a flat block of colour. For the Artycapucines project, Milhazes uses 18 different types of leather that are worked to the same thickness and then inlaid onto the bag’s lambskin base using innovative and novel marquetry techniques. The process is then repeated for each different form to create complex, multi-layered, kaleidoscopic paintings made up of distinctive geometric, shapes, arabesques and floral patterns.
Jean-Michel Othoniel
French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel began working with glass in the early 1990s as he was fascinated by the material’s capacity to reflect and reverse. His Artycapucines is a graceful and joyous design. The bag’s main body is intricately hand-woven in raffia, while a black satin silk hand-embroidered trim runs along the top edge. The bag’s handle is made of large black resin beads that echo Othoniel’s best-known large-scale works. It then completed with three resin beads acting as an exclusive and portable Othoniel sculpture.
Josh Smith
New York-based artist Josh Smith is known for his visual exploration and the philosophical possibilities of his own name presented in abstracted forms. His take on the Artycapucines is based on one of his signature “name” paintings with the bag’s cotton canvas exterior embroidered with white-coloured stitches to replicate brushstrokes, creating a sensation of depth. The fabric and stitches are then painstakingly printed, before the letters of Smith’s name are embroidered across the entire bag. The LV signature is crafted in metal inlaid with wood while the handle is made of pure pear wood.
Henry Taylor
Henry Taylor is an American artist whose works delve into deep empathy and political analysis, while exploring his experience as an AfricanAmerican in the country’s contemporary landscape. Taylor’s Artycapucines is a portrait of the late Noah Davis, a renowned AfricanAmerican
artist and founder of L.A.’s Underground Museum. The bag’s taupe Taurillon leather has gone through over 100 experiments to test different methods of 2D and 3D detailing to mimic Taylor’s original brushstrokes. The result is a portrait that is also a remarkable sculptural bas-relief.
Liu Wei
Beijing-based artist Liu Wei is renowned for provocative, unclassifiable works that jump between media – from sculpture to oil paintings to videos to drawing installations. His Artycapucines is based on “Microworld,” a large-scale sculptural installation shown at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Variously sized aluminium petals from the sculpture are recreated for the bag using five different types of silver-coloured leather that are meticulously thermo-moulded and inserted directly into the bag’s interior using Louis Vuitton-engraved rivets. The black Plexiglas handle brings a retro-futuristic touch to the monochrome bag.
Zhao Zhao
Chinese artist Zhao Zhao’s Artycapucines is based on his 2018 sculpture, “In Extremis No.3.” The artwork’s metal components are transformed into 353 individual laser-cut patches made of five different types of leather, which are hand-embroidered, machine-embroidered, printed – with seven different patterns – or worked into relief. They are then assembled and carefully sewn together into a single panel that follows the precise design layout that Zhao created. The result? It is as if the original work has been moulded to fit precisely around the Capucines bag.
The Artycapucines collection is further proof of Louis Vuitton’s unique ability and desire to use its innovative spirit and artisanal savoir-faire to help artists bring their ideas to life. Each bag in the Artycapucines collection will be released in a limited edition of 200 pieces in selected stores worldwide. The complete range of six designs will be available here in Indonesia.