MASTERS - A COLLABORATION BETWEEN LV AND JEFF KOONS
May 08, 2017
Masters, the bold collaboration between Louis Vuitton and Jeff Koons, reinvents a number of iconic masterpieces from the American artist’s “Gazing Ball” paintings, or a series of large-scale hand-painted reproductions of works by the Old Masters.
Plastered on limited-edition bags and small leathergoods, including the Keepall, the Neverfull and the Speedy, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is the star of this unique line-up developed by the French luxury brand and Koons. Unveiled at a high-wattage dinner at the Louvre museum, Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Connelly, Miranda Kerr, Léa Seydoux, Michelle Williams and Jennifer Aniston were among the top-class celebrities who swooned over each bag.
Koons, who enjoyed carte blanche on the project, also developed a new variant of LV’s signature monogram motif that he matched with the artists’ names – Da Vinci, Rubens, Titian, Van Gogh and Fragonard – spelled out on the front in metallic block letters. Obtaining a detailed and high-definition reproduction of the paintings on canvas took more than a year.
“What my “Gazing Ball” paintings are really about is the appreciation for things that came before us. Louis Vuitton is a major sponsor of the art and there was so much freedom on this project. There is also a reflective process about the person being interlinked with the bag. I would hope that when somebody walks down the street with one (of the bags) they are really celebrating humanity and that someone who the bag can emotionally feel this connectivity. I believe that these bags are art,” says Jeff Koons of the project.