CH’NG Poh Tiong
For the first time ever, a Portuguese artist has created an artwork for the label of Chateau Mouton Rothschild.
Joana Vasconcelos joins the contemporary artists who have contributed to the chateau’s iconic label series. Her “Paraíso” (Paradise) illustrates the 2023 vintage.
Joana Vasconcelos
Born in 1971, Joana Vasconcelos made history as the first woman and youngest artist to exhibit at the Palace of Versailles in 2012, the most visited exhibition in France in 50 years. In 2018, she became the first Portuguese artist to have a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Then in 2023, Vasconcelos was granted the honour to exhibit at the Uffizi Galleries and Pitti Palace in Florence alongside classical masters such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo or Caravaggio.
Known globally for her monumental, joyful, and often provocative installations, Vasconcelos embraced the unique challenge of working on an intimate, label-sized scale.
Her drawing centres on a cluster of grapes and illustrates all the elements that come together to create a great wine: earth and water, the sun’s rays and the cool of the night. The work of human hands is symbolized by the apex of a triangle, representing a beneficial incursion into the cycle of nature. Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, each element, with its own shape and colour, plays a complementary and decisive role.
Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos working on the label for Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2023
Joana Vasconcelos and Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild presenting the artwork in her studio
“I felt very privileged and honoured to be a part not only of a great name, but also of the ensemble of great artists that have participated in previous editions of this project. My inspiration for the label were the grapes and vines and the naturalistic aspect of Chateau Mouton, meaning nature. ‘Paraíso’ (Paradise) is a work inspired by the idea of perfection, of luxury, and the coherence between nature and man,” said Vasconcelos.
Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, co-proprietor responsible for the estate’s artistic and cultural endeavours, has been familiar with Vasconcelos’s work for years. He was impressed by her large-scale exhibition at Versailles Palace in 2012.
Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, Chateau Mouton Rothschild co-proprietor responsible for the estate’s artistic and cultural endeavours
“Joana Vasconcelos uses everyday, traditional materials like embroidery or crochet to create artworks that explore contemporary issues such as feminism in a monumental, baroque, occasionally provocative, humorous and engaged way. She grounds Portugal’s craft heritage in modernity. I really like that link between art and craft because it’s what we have here at Château Mouton Rothschild, the result of high-level craftsmanship and at the same time a work of art, because each vintage is unique, rare and hence precious,” said Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild.
Since 1945, the labels for each vintage of Chateau Mouton Rothschild have been illustrated by an original artwork, adding year after year to the unique collection of contemporary art which brings together very different artists from many different backgrounds, including names such as Salvador Dalí, César, Juan Miró, Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Pierre Soulages, Francis Bacon, Balthus, Jeff Koons, David Hockney, Annette Messager, Olafur Eliasson, Peter Doig, Chiharu Shiota and Gérard Garouste.
