Ending months of rumour Mouton Rothschild has announced that the label for their 2009 vintage has been designed by British sculptor, painter and visual artist Anish Kapoor. The Chateau’s press release described the commission as:
“at once austere and flamboyant, the gouache he has created for Mouton Rothschild 2009 expresses the fertile thrust of plant life, the result of an intense encounter between matter and light”.
Anish Kapoor was born in was born in Mumbai (Bombay) in 1954. He settled in England in 1972 and was awarded the Turner prize in 1991.
Many of his sculptures since seem to recede into the distance, disappear into the ground or distort the space around them. In fact looking at the Mouton Rothschild 2009 label the deep reds either side of the black void seem to be subtly moving sideways – can you spot it?
Baroness Philippine de Rothschild told Decanter.com that Kapoor is a friend, and commissioning him is a continuation of her desire to ensure the world’s leading artists produce labels for Mouton:
“Anish is both a good friend and enormously talented, as well as being recognised the world over for his talent, and the choice seems absolutely relevant to us at Mouton.
He has produced a label that is a burst of colour and life. I see the red as representing wine, joy and happiness, which fits perfectly with the 2009 vintage. We are lucky to have a great painter with a great vintage.’”
Londoners will probably be familiar with Kapoor’s work – his recent work (with Cecil Balmond) includes the giant sculpture, the Orbit Tower,that soars over London’s Olympic park – which was commissioned for the London Olympic Games next summer.
The Arcelor Mittal Orbit, to give the tower its full name, is a 115 metres (377ft) high observation tower. The steel sculpture is Britain’s largest piece of public art, and is intended to serve as a permanent legacy of London’s hosting of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Art aside, Mouton seem to have done a nice piece of marketing tying in the Olympic tower designer to their 2009 label. The 2008 label was designed by Chinese artist Xu Lei. The year 2008 was auspicious for the Chinese as it is a lucky number and shortly after the 2008 label was announced – as you might have guessed – prices went up 20% overnight.
I quite like the 2009 label . . . as for the Orbit Tower, least said soonest mended!