Saturday – 4 Shaaban 1444 AH – 25 February 2023 AD Issue Number [16160]
New York: «Asharq Al-Awsat»
The Joan Mitchell Foundation, which manages the rights of the American plastic artist, has asked Louis Vuitton to stop using her work in advertisements for luxury bags, noting that she feels “greatly disappointed” at the “contempt” shown by the brand in this regard.
The “LVMH” group, the first in the world in the luxury products sector that follows “Louis Vuitton”, did not make any comment on the matter, in contact with the French Press Agency.
And the Joanne Mitchell Foundation stated that the French house is “copied and used illegally” and despite the repeated rejection of the institution, “at least three of the works” of the artist (1925-1992), in a new “print and digital campaign” for bags, starring actress Lea Seydoux. The foundation, in a statement on its website on Tuesday, threatened to sue the “Louis Vuitton” house if it did not abandon the continuation of this campaign.
These three works are currently in the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris as part of an exhibition dedicated to Joan Mitchell, one of the most prominent artists of the American Abstract Expressionist movement, and to the French Impressionist painter Claude Monet (1840-1926).
However, the Joan Mitchell Foundation considered that the Louis Vuitton Foundation had “violated its obligations” when it “allowed these works to be photographed for this ( ) purpose and in this way.”
The Foundation, which manages the work of the American painter and her legacy, confirmed that it had “rejected (…) in writing” Louis Vuitton’s request, in line with “the policy it has pursued for a long time, which requires that images of the artist’s work be used only for educational purposes.”
“The Joan Mitchell Foundation is deeply disappointed that Louis Vuitton acted with such disrespect for the artist’s rights and exploited her work for financial purposes,” it added.