On February 21st, the Joan Mitchell Foundation sent a cease-and-desist letter to Louis Vuitton Malletier over their advertisement of the Capucines bag featuring Léa Seydoux with some of Joan Mitchell’s works in the background. In a public statement, the JMF claimed alleged copyright infringement over the commercial use of some of the paintings that were on view at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris for the “Monet-Mitchell” exhibit that ended on February 27th.
Indeed, the fashion house had been explicitly denied the use of such works at least twice in late 2022. In a New York Times article, Christa Blatchford, director of the JMF confirmed that Louis Vuitton asked for the permission to use Joan Mitchell’s paintings in an advertising campaign and that the brand was explicitly denied doing so. Additionally, Bernard Arnault offered to make a donation to obtain an approval that was never conferred.
Nevertheless, the company decided to move ahead with the campaign that was – fittingly – published online and in print, in France and in the US, on February 12th, the date of Joan Mitchell’s birthday. “As an artist-endowed foundation dedicated to stewarding Mitchell’s work and legacy, JMF carefully manages how images of the artist’s work are used in accordance with its mission,” according to the statement. The core of this mission is to limit the reproduction of the artist’s legacy for educational purposes, and extremely limitedly for exhibition memorabilia.
The works in question—La Grande Vallée XIV (For a Little While) (1983), Quatuor II for Betsy Jolas (1976), and Edrita Fried (1981)— were not named nor credited in the campaign and the works are cropped in the background. They appear as secondary elements rather than proper subjects of the campaign. “This whole experience has made it clear to us that the separation we thought was in existence between the Fondation Louis Vuitton and the company was not there,” said Blatchford.
If ever there was a doubt about this non-existent separation, which I personally never believed, this occurrence sets the record straight. Even if LVMH claims that its foundation is fully disconnected from the businesses of the luxury conglomerate, their strategy over the almost decade since the foundation has been open (in 2014) has been to capitalize on culture within its Maisons and different brands. As observed and investigated several times on this blog, LVMH has turned master at mixing and matching art and fashion.
This strategy has increasingly become all-encompassing and global, from the runway to the shops to publicity. It the foundation could have been seen as the culmination of such an identity-building, it was probably a starting point of a new era putting art not as a complementing element to brand strategies and identity-building, but as a central one.
The analogy with ESG principles helps in making my point: while companies, luxury brands included, have multiplied efforts to put sustainability, environmental responsibility and even inclusivity on their agenda and have rolled out initiatives to do so (with mixed results in some instances), it has now become clear that these initiatives cannot be successful if considered as complementary strategies. In fact, they can only be truly effective if put at the core of businesses’ overall models.
While not as critical and urgent as ESG mandates, the multiplication and success of artistic and cultural initiatives, and the increasingly competitive landscape of the luxury industry has pushed LVMH to put art at the forefront of its business model. Rather than a nice thing to have, cultural capital has become a critical component of successful luxury brands.
For the Summer 2022 campaign, Léa Seydoux advertised the Capucines bag… in front of Les Nymphéas in the Orangerie Museum in Paris. Was moving ahead with the Joan Mitchell campaign after having been denied the right to do so wrong? Yes. But it certainly was not surprising. I can understand that the storytelling appeal of the pieces so fittingly falling together was too strong to be missed.
There is a reason why art has become a communication and commercial asset: cultural relevance sells, it creates quick and instant identification for those having the necessary capital to read and interpret the signaling. And even for those who don’t, it sells the lure of belonging to what is considered as high-class, elevated, tasteful and aspirational. In all honesty, Louis Vuitton not doing this campaign would have been the surprise.
mabou 