An artwork by Joana Vasconcelos to illustrate the label for Château Mouton Rothschild 2023
- Gen de Art
- 9 minutes ago
- 4 min read
For the first time ever, a Portuguese artist has created an artwork for the Château Mouton Rothschild label. Joana Vasconcelos’s “Paraíso” illustrates the 2023 vintage, adding her name to the remarkable list of contemporary artists who have preceded her.
“Paraíso” - Label for Château Mouton Rothschild 2023,
illustrated by Joana Vasconcelos
Famous for her monumental, joyful installations, Joana Vasconcelos chose the challenge of creating a label-sized artwork. 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, combined with the work of human hands, represented by the apex of a triangle as a beneficial incursion into the cycle of nature.
Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, each element has its own shape and colour and plays a complementary and decisive role. The vine is the centre of human attention and thrives in the paradise – “Paraíso” in Portuguese – that is the Château Mouton Rothschild terroir, whose soil, sun and water have nourished grapes from time immemorial.
True to her bright, colourful universe, the artist has used her talent for graphic arts, honed over several years, to create the drawing that illustrates the label for the 2023 vintage.
Joana Vasconcelos explains the inspiration behind her original artwork
“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 the Château Mouton, meaning nature. “Paraíso” (Paradise) is a work inspired by the idea of perfection, of luxury, and the coherence between nature and man.”
Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild has been familiar with her work for many years. He was impressed by her large-scale exhibition at Versailles Palace in 2012. More recently, he visited the one at the Liria Palace in Madrid, where the artist contrasted her contemporary creations with very old works in a fascinating dialogue between two periods of time. The owners of Château Mouton Rothschild, beguiled by the spectacular creations that have made her famous, also see common ground between the way Joana Vasconcelos uses, assembles and works with different raw materials and the making of a fine wine. They appreciate the vision and joy that emanate from her universe, found here in her original artwork for the label.
“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.”
Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, co-owner of Château Mouton Rothschild, responsible for the estate’s artistic and cultural activity and for relations with artists.
Joana Vasconcelos
Born in 1971, Joana Vasconcelos is a Portuguese visual artist with a career spanning over 30 years and a huge variety of media. Recognised for her monumental sculptures and immersive installations, she decontextualises everyday objects and updates the arts and crafts concept for the 21st century, establishing a dialogue between the private sphere and public space, popular heritage and refined culture. She questions the status of women, consumer society and collective identity with humour and irony.
International acclaim arrived in 2005 with The Bride at the first Venice Biennale curated by women where she has returned three times to date. In 2013 at the helm of Trafaria Praia she represented Portugal as the first ever floating pavilion at the event. She was the first woman and youngest artist to exhibit at the Palace of Versailles. In 2012 her exhibition was the most visited in France in 50 years. In 2018 she became the first Portuguese artist to have an individual exhibition at Guggenheim Bilbao. In 2023 she 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. Her Wedding Cake for Waddesdon Manor was considered “the first wholeheartedly joyful artistic masterpiece of the 21st century” by The Guardian and came second in its “best art and architecture” 2023 list.
Her artworks have also graced exhibits around the world such as Grassi Palace in Venice, Thyssen-Bornemisza, Royal Academy of Arts in London, Manchester Art Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Kunsthal Rotterdam, São Paulo’s CCBB and Pinacoteca, Istanbul Modern, Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture in Moscow, Le Centquatre and La Monnaie Paris, Palais de Tokyo and Hermitage. They also feature in several private collections.
She received the rank of Commander of the Order of Infante D. Henrique by the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic in 2009 and became an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture in 2022. She manages the Joana Vasconcelos Studio with over 50 employees since 2006 and founded the Joana Vasconcelos Foundation in 2012 to support social causes, grant scholarships and promote art for all.
Paintings for the Labels at Château Mouton Rothschild
Making Château Mouton Rothschild a place of art and beauty was Baron Philippe de Rothschild’s ambition. Since 1945, the labels for each vintage of Château 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.
