in focus
The art of drinks
Jane Ryan looks at the some of the most inspiring collaborations between artists and drinks brands Claudia Winkleman’s book Quite is the very best thing I have ever read on the subject of art. It’s only one little chapter in a book that gives a lot more time to eyeliner and the importance of black clothing, but it’s awe-inspiring nonetheless. In it she details the first time she saw Titian’s Assumption of the Virgin, painted for a church in Venice in 1516-18, and which brought her to tears. Winkleman goes on to say that art is the answer, that seeing art is the most enriching thing you can do with your time, and that it is even better for your soul than mascara. What’s that got to do with alcohol brands and their collaborations with artists? Hold on, I’m getting there. You see, The Assumption of the Virgin was Titian’s first major commission and it did wonders for his career, but better still it did wonders for the Church. Art, it turns out, has always been used to sell things to us, whether it was religion, a can of soup or a bottle of Campari – which seems like an excellent place to start. It was Campari, in the early 1920s, that became one of the first brands to forge the link between art and alcohol when it commissioned Fortunato Depero to produce adverts with his graphic style of broken lines, strong use of colour and attention to lettering. Depero was not the only artist on Campari’s books, but all those called on shared his modern style – many were futurists, like Depero, and all were incredibly innovative. Depero’s remit was extensive, from the design of the Campari Soda vending machine signs to his 1926 painting Squisito al Selz (Delicious with Seltzer), which straddled the world of advertising and high art. It was this same image Depero chose to illustrate his manifesto, Il futurismo e l’arte pubblicitaria (Futurism and Advertising Art), where he
52 - The Cocktail Lovers
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s bottles for 1800 Tequila Essential Artists Series 6
considered the idea of industrial leaders like Campari as parallel to the great art patrons of the Renaissance. You can still see Depero’s work for the brand to this day, with his colourful designs gracing limited-edition bottles, and in the elegant simplicity of the Campari Soda bottle, first produced in 1932, which he conceived in 1927 by reversing the shape of the traditional bitter glass. Almost 50 years after Campari first worked with the Futurist artists, another artist making waves for their progressive pop art style placed the following advert in New York’s Village Voice: “I’ll endorse with my name any of the following: clothing, AC-DC, cigarettes, small tapes, sound equipment, ROCK N’ ROLL RECORDS, anything, film, and film equipment, Food, Helium, Whips, MONEY!!” That artist was Andy Warhol, and while he doesn’t specify alcohol, I think we can say it definitely falls under the remit of ‘anything’, has a lot to do with money, some ties to food and could be held responsible for quite a bit of rock ‘n’ roll. No surprise then that in 1985 Warhol endorsed with his name and his art a Swedish
vodka brand trying to stand out in the USA. There are several iterations of Warhol’s paintings for Absolut, but the most famous would be his chalk-like black bottle with the striking K and A of ‘vodka’ coloured pink and yellow, and the rest of the lettering in Absolut’s tell-tale deep blue. It’s playful but still recognisable, distinctly Warhol and distinctly Absolut, yet it was what the brand did after Warhol that made the campaign one of the world’s most successful. Following the triumph of the ‘Absolut Warhol’ ads, Warhol was asked to suggest other artists who could be used to continue the campaign. Rather than relying on the one artist, over the years more than 350 have been commissioned by Absolut, including Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Louise Bourgeois, Damien Hirst and Ed Ruscha, all invited to re-envision the clean design of its vodka bottle in their own signature styles. It’s produced some enchanting, some bizarre, always subversive art. Just three years into the campaign Absolut had another stroke of genius when it began selecting lesser-known artists, positioning the commission as an
