Art is indispensable to the world of luxury. If you belong to the luxury industry or aspiring to be, this is an article you cannot miss.
Luxury and art maintain a constant and intimate relationship. This flirtatious affair has served as a motivation to create deeper brand depth by associating with a uniquely artistic atmosphere.
What would Absolut Vodka be without the image of the bottle created by Andy Warhol in 1985, at the Swedish brand’s inception?
The art world and luxury brands entering the artistic sphere affirm their distinctive connoisseurship and emphasize their belonging to the elitist network. Knowledge of art gives you that “intellectual high ground”.
It allows you to time-travel back to the age of Renaissance, seeing through the eyes of Raffaello Sanazio, Michelangelo while keeping you updated with modernity owing to the forward-thinking contemporary arts of Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons. It takes you through a historic journey as you witness the evolution of mankind while also rejuvenates and asserts a sense of recentness while opening you to the world to come.
Art in its scope also nurtures the specific relationship between luxury and time. Luxury breeds a myth of timelessness and so does art. It is a philosophy on its own, and who better than art could help you decode this beautiful analogy.
A Ferrari is known to gain value over time. It is required by the Maranello workshop, in Italy to maintain 38,000 Ferraris of all ages sold worldwide. Here the brand aims to employ an important essence of art — that is eternity. The piece of work will survive the creator and prevail even after the artist’s adieu.
As much as art can be an intimidating affair! It certainly is an art on its own to understand it’s various facets. In order to fathom the underlying principles that govern luxury — art becomes an indispensable factor.
Here are five reasons how art can help you comprehend better:
ART X BRAND
Art helps understand the brand. It is essential to apprehend the excellent marriage between these two entities that understand the meaning of bespoke production. Art and luxury have a long history of influencing each other to create timeless, aspirational experiences. From creative and editorial collaborations with artists like Salvador Dali, Cindy Sherman, Ed Ruscha and Takashi Murakami, to brand and creative directors increasingly drawing on trends and philosophy of art in their work.
However, not everyone can educe an appropriate appreciation behind most of such collaborations.
“This is a massive coup d’etat” on the LVMH-Koons collaboration, said by Vadim Grigoryan, a lecturer on art and brands at INSEAD Business School. He further added, “It is obviously over the top and borderline obnoxious and that is actually what makes it acceptable and interesting to the savvy shopper, rather than to the uninitiated. First of all, you have to know who Jeff Koons is to appreciate the attitude behind it. And you have to appreciate the self-inflicted ironic take on LVMH — as though the brand is laughing at itself and sharing the joke with you. And you can appropriate some of the most iconic images at the same time only once in history.”
Association with a specific genre of art allows the brand to act as a cultural agent. Intriguing to many, unattractive to few, it takes an understanding of the true essence of art to keep the brand relevant.
ART X CULTURE
In a business setting, art is not usually a traditional aspect of teaching or understanding culture in a cross-cultural sense. However, art acts a universal language that breaks cultural barriers and gives a deeper understanding of your customer’s beliefs and values better. It encapsulates the snapshot of history and anthropology and contextualizes things that happen within society. Know-how of the domestic culture and local art helps in crafting meaningful communication and initiate different perspective. It gives you a broader understanding of the foreign market, making it easier to woo your customers.
According to the “Americans Speak Out about the Arts” survey, 67 percent of Americans believe “the arts unify our communities regardless of age, race, and ethnicity” and 62 percent agree that the arts “help me understand other cultures better.”
Luxury fashion brands have long collaborated with artists, allowing them to be perceived as more luxurious. Salvatore Ferragamo, Trussardi, Hermes, Ermenegildo Zegna, Prada, and Louis Vuitton are just a few of the luxury houses that are investing in art. From collecting valuable contemporary art pieces to also commissioning new pieces of art from both emerging and well-established artists, it has been an ongoing affair. A constant need for a point of difference to enhance their apparent exclusivity, brands have directed themselves towards the art field. Instead of using art for mere commercial purposes, they have started to invest conspicuously in the cultural industry. Art as a tool holds the power to create a sense of community. It serves as a common pool where people can share their ideas and derive a sense of purpose.
Associating oneself, with such community imbibes a sense of individuality and openness to the immense learning.
ART X STORYTELLING
Art makes us better visionaries and helps convey our thoughts, ideas that we may not be able to articulate in any other way. Choosing the right art helps the brand tailor their communication in line with the values and behaviours of its target audience. In a digital-driven society, where storytelling defines the ultimate human experience, art allows you to tap into the most relevant cultural code. It gives you the opportunity to relate with the real interests, desires, wants and life pieces of an individual and thereby artistically fabricate a conversation.
Gucci used its fascinating allegory behind those slithering snake patterns, golden bumblebees, and the royal Bengal tiger, to communicate the brand’s vision. The powerful animal and nature symbols bloom out of the Gucci Garden. While the snakes exemplify knowledge in Greek & Roman Art, the distinguished bees are a symbol of nobility in Rome. In context to the audience, “Tiger to a millennial may resonate with her spirit animal. A story where one is always seeking new challenges,” or “I was born in the year of the Tiger, so I must own one of those ace embroidered sneakers.”
Each element of art has a story to tell and enchant the other. It is only when you open yourselves and dive into this kaleidoscopic world, that you enjoy and understand the weaving of such exceptional stories.
ART X CREATIVITY
Art stimulates oneself into a mind-set of heightened creativity and productivity. It helps in strengthening critical thinking skills and makes one more socially tolerant. Exposing ourselves to art has effects on us.
Writing for the National Endowment of the Arts, Brain Pickings founder Maria Popova described this phenomenon as “the power to transcend our own self-interest, our solipsistic zoom-lens on life, and relate to the world and each other with more integrity, more curiosity, more wholeheartedness.”
The exclusive element of luxury requires that it should always be beyond the reach of the masses. Yet, as luxuries become accessible to more people, they eventually lose their exclusive quality. Consequently, there is a constant drive to create new or enhanced luxuries that replace those items and experiences that fall from luxuriousness and finally dilutes into a pool of commonness. This is where art serves as an abundant source of inspiration.
Hermes held it’s first-ever collaboration with an artist for a window display in India. The Hermès 2019 theme, In Pursuit of Dreams, was presented with a perfect spin of whimsy by Indian artist Sumakshi Singh in her characteristic handcrafted style.
Art always keeps you on the lookout for something new and pushes your creative horizon.
ART X CRAFTSMANSHIP
In today’s time when the overexposed fashion brand authenticity is being questioned, it is the dependability of products made with heritage skill sets that serve as a means of reinvigorating.
Significant knowledge of art introduces you to the crafts of different regions given you access to a much wider arena.
Vivienne Westwood’s African bag collections are a good example of this type of philanthropy.
“Art drives taste, and taste drives consumption”.
In today’s age when globalization and digital culture redefine luxury and exclusivity, art serves as a medium to enhance individuality. It has always proved to be more than just a decoration. Synonymous to a high class with refined tasted, today’s world-leading institutions use art as a strategic marketing and branding tool.
Art has always acted as a field of desire, aspiration and seduction. The one who understands how to derive its symbolic value from its mere material value has an eye for it!
