Louis Vuitton Malletier

Type	Division of holding company (LVMH)
Industry	Retail
Founded	1854
Founder(s)	Louis Vuitton
Headquarters	Paris, France
Key people	Jordi Constans (Chairman & CEO) Marc Jacobs (Artistic Director) Kim Jones (lead designer of menswear) Antoine Arnault (Director of Communications)
Products	Luxury goods
Revenue	€2.5 billion (2011)[1]
Parent	LVMH
Website	louisvuitton.com

Louis Vuitton Malletier – commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton (French: [lwi vɥitɔ̃], commonly /ˈluːiː viːˈtɒn/), or shortened to LV – is a French fashion house founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label is well known for its LV monogram, which is featured on most of its products - this ranging from luxury trunks and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes, watches, jewelry, accessories, sunglasses, and books. Louis Vuitton is one of the world's leading international fashion houses; it sells its products through standalone boutiques, lease departments in high-end department stores, and through the e-commerce section of its website.^[2][3]For seven consecutive years (2006-2012) Louis Vuitton has been named the world's most valuable luxury brand. Its 2012 valuation is 25.9 billion USD.^[4]

History[link]

Founding to World War II[link]

The Louis Vuitton label was founded by Vuitton in 1854 on Rue Neuve des Capucines in Paris, France.^[5] Louis Vuitton had observed that the HJ Cave Osilite^[6] trunk could be easily stacked and in 1858, Vuitton introduced his flat-bottom trunks with trianon canvas, making them lightweight and airtight.^[5] Before the introduction of Vuitton's trunks, rounded-top trunks were used, generally to promote water run off, and thus could not be stacked. It was Vuitton's gray Trianon canvas flat trunk that allowed the ability to stack with ease for voyages. Becoming successful and prestigious, many other luggagemakers began to imitate LV's style and design.^[3]

In the courtyard of the Vuitton workshops in Asnières, Paris, c. 1888, Louis, Georges and Gaston L. Vuitton (seated on a Bed trunk)

In 1867, the company participated in the universal exhibition in Paris.^[5] To protect against the duplication of his look, he changed the Trianon design to a beige and brown stripes design in 1876.^[3] By 1885, the company opened its first store in London, England on Oxford Street.^[5] Soon thereafter, due to the continuing imitation of his look, in 1888, the Damier Canvas pattern was created by Louis Vuitton, bearing a logo that reads "marque L. Vuitton déposée", which translates into "L. Vuitton registered trademark". In 1892, Louis Vuitton died, and the company's management passed to his son.^[3][5]

Advert for Louis Vuitton luggage, 1898.

After the death of his father, Georges Vuitton began a campaign to build the company into a worldwide corporation, exhibiting the company's products at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. In 1896, the company launched the signature Monogram Canvas and made the worldwide patents on it.^[3][5] Its graphic symbols, including quatrefoils and flowers (as well as the LV monogram), were based on the trend of using Japanese and Oriental designs in the late Victorian era. The patents later proved to be successful in stopping counterfeiting. In this same year, Georges traveled to the United States, where he toured various cities (such as New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago), selling Vuitton products during the visit. In 1901, the Louis Vuitton Company introduced the Steamer Bag, a smaller piece of luggage designed to be kept inside Vuitton luggage trunks.

By 1913, the Louis Vuitton Building opened on the Champs-Elysees. It was the largest travel-goods store in the world at the time. Stores also opened in New York, Bombay, Washington, London, Alexandria, and Buenos Aires as World War I began. Afterwards, in 1930, the Keepall bag was introduced. During 1932, LV introduced the Noé bag. This bag was originally made for champagne vintners to transport bottles. Soon thereafter, the Louis Vuitton Speedy bag was introduced (both are still manufactured today).^[5] In 1936 Georges Vuitton died, and his son, Gaston-Louis Vuitton, assumed control of the company.^[5]

During World War II, Louis Vuitton collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of France. The French book Louis Vuitton, A French Saga, authored by French journalist Stephanie Bonvicini and published by Paris-based Editions Fayard^[7] tells how members of the Vuitton family actively aided the puppet government led by Marshal Philippe Pétain and increased their wealth from their business affairs with the Germans. The family set up a factory dedicated to producing artifacts glorifying Pétain, including more than 2,500 busts.

Caroline Babulle, a spokeswoman for the publisher, Fayard, said: "They have not contested anything in the book, but they are trying to bury it by pretending it doesn't exist."^[8] Responding to the book's release in 2004, a spokesman for LVMH said: "This is ancient history. The book covers a period when it was family-run and long before it became part of LVMH. We are diverse, tolerant and all the things a modern company should be."^[8] An LVMH spokesman told the satirical magazine Le Canard Enchainé: "We don't deny the facts, but regrettably the author has exaggerated the Vichy episode. We haven't put any pressure on anyone. If the journalists want to censor themselves, then that suits us fine." That publication was the only French periodical to mention the book, LVMH is the country's biggest advertiser in the press.^[8]

1945 through 2000[link]

Louis Vuitton store in Nicosia, Cyprus

During this period, Louis Vuitton incorporated its leather into most of its products, ranging from small purses and wallets to larger pieces of luggage. In order to broaden its line, the company revamped its signature Monogram Canvas in 1959^[5] to make it more supple, allowing it to be used for purses, bags, and wallets. It is believed that in the 1920s, counterfeiting returned as a greater issue to continue on into the 21st century.^[3] In 1966, the Papillon was launched (a cylindrical bag that is still popular today). By 1977 with annual revenue up to 70 million Francs ($14.27 million US$).^[9] A year later, the label opened its first stores in Japan: in Tokyo and Osaka). In 1983, the company joined with America's Cup to form the Louis Vuitton Cup, a preliminary competition (known as an eliminatory regatta) for the yacht race. Louis Vuitton later expanded its presence in Asia with the opening of a store in Taipei, Taiwan in 1983 and Seoul, South Korea in 1984. In the following year, 1985, the Epi leather line was introduced.^[5]

1987 saw the creation of LVMH.^[5] Moët et Chandon and Hennessy, leading manufacturers of champagne and cognac, merged respectively with Louis Vuitton to form the luxury goods conglomerate. Profits for 1988 were reported to have been up by 49% more than in 1987. By 1989, Louis Vuitton came to operate 130 stores worldwide.^[5] Entering the 1990s, Yves Carcelle was named president of LV, and in 1992, his brand opened its first Chinese location at the Palace Hotel in Beijing. Further products became introduced such as the Taiga leather line in 1993, and the literature collection of Voyager Avec... in 1994. In 1996, the celebration of the Centennial of the Monogram Canvas was held in seven cities worldwide.^[5]

In 1997, Louis Vuitton made Marc Jacobs its Artistic Director.^[10] In March of the following year, he designed and introduced the company's first "prêt-à-porter" line of clothing for men and women. Also in this year products introduced included the Monogram Vernis line, the LV scrapbooks, and the Louis Vuitton City Guide.^[5]

The last events in the 20th century were the release of the mini monogram line in 1999, the opening of the first store in Africa in Marrakech, Morocco in 2000, and finally the auction at the International Film Festival in Venice, Italy, where the vanity case "amfAR" designed by Sharon Stone was sold with the proceeds going to The Foundation for AIDS Research (also in 2000).^[5]

2001 to present day[link]

The store on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.

A Louis Vuitton boutique in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, in Milan, Italy.

By 2001, Stephen Sprouse, in collaboration with Marc Jacobs, designed a limited-edition line of Vuitton bags^[5] that featured graffiti written over the monogram pattern. The graffiti read Louis Vuitton and, on certain bags, the name of the bag (such as Keepall and Speedy). Certain pieces, which featured the graffiti without the Monogram Canvas background, were only available on Louis Vuitton's V.I.P. customer list. Jacobs also created the charm bracelet, the first ever piece of jewelry from LV, within the same year.^[5]

In 2002, the Tambour watch collection was introduced.^[5] During this year, the LV building in Tokyo's Ginza district was opened, and the brand collaborated with Bob Wilson for its Christmas windows sceneography. In 2003, Takashi Murakami,^[5] in collaboration with Marc Jacobs, masterminded the new Monogram Multicolore canvas range of handbags and accessories. This range included the monograms of the standard Monogram Canvas, but in 33 different colors on either a white or black background. (The classic canvas features gold monograms on a brown background.) Murakami also created the Cherry Blossom pattern, in which smiling cartoon faces in the middle of pink and yellow flowers were sporadically placed atop the Monogram Canvas. This pattern appeared on a limited number of pieces. The production of this limited-edition run was discontinued in June 2003. Within 2003, the stores in Moscow, Russia and in New Delhi, India were opened, the Utah and Suhali leather lines were released, and the 20th anniversary of the LV Cup was held.^[5]

Louis Vuitton situated on the famous Champs-Elysées.

The store in Yekaterinburg (Russia)

In 2004, Louis Vuitton celebrated its 150th anniversary. The brand also inaugurated stores in New York City (on Fifth Avenue), São Paulo, Mexico City, Cancun and Johannesburg. It also opened its first global store in Shanghai. By 2005, Louis Vuitton reopened its Champs-Élysées store in Paris designed by the American Architect Eric Carlson (reputed to be the largest and most successful LV store in the world), and released the Speedy watch collection. In 2006, LV held the inauguration of the Espace Louis Vuitton on its 7th floor.^[5] In 2008, Louis Vuitton released the Damier Graphite canvas. The canvas features the classic Damier pattern but in black and grey, giving it a masculine look and urban feel.

In 2010, Louis Vuitton opened what it described as their most luxurious store in London.^[11]

In early 2011, Louis Vuitton hired Kim Jones as its "Men Ready-to-wear Studio and Style Director". Essentially, he became the lead designer of menswear while working under the company-wide artistic directorship of Marc Jacobs.^[12]

On 17 September 2011, Louis Vuitton opened its very first Island Maison (island mansion) in Singapore, the first 'maison' to be opened in South-east Asia, and Jordi Constans was announced as new CEO for the company, replacing Yves Carcelle. Constans is originally from Barcelona, Spain.

Brand[link]

The Louis Vuitton brand and the famous LV monogram are among the world's most valuable brands.^[13] According to a Millward Brown 2010 study, Louis Vuitton is the world's 29th most valuable brand, right after Gillette and before Wells Fargo. The brand itself is estimated to be worth over USD $19 billion.^[14] For the sixth consecutive year, Louis Vuitton still at number one of ten most powerful brand published by the Millward Brown Optimor's 2011 BrandZ study with value of $24.3 billion. It was more than double value from the second rank.^[15]

Louis Vuitton is one of the most counterfeited brands in the fashion world due to its image as a status symbol. Ironically, the signature Monogram Canvas was created to prevent counterfeiting.^[16] In 2004, Louis Vuitton fakes accounted for 18% of counterfeit accessories seized in the European Union.^[17]

The company takes counterfeiting seriously, and employs a team of lawyers and special investigation agencies, actively pursuing offenders through the courts worldwide, and allocating about half of its budget of communications to counteract counterfeiting of its goods.^[3] LVMH (Vuitton's parent company) further confirmed this by stating that "some 60 people at various levels of responsibility working full time on anti-counterfeiting in collaboration with a wide network of outside investigators and a team of lawyers."^[18] In a further effort, the company closely controls the distribution of its products.^[3] Until the 1980s, Vuitton products were widely sold in department stores (e.g., Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue). Today, Vuitton products are primarily available at authentic Louis Vuitton boutiques,^[3] with a small number of exceptions. These boutiques are commonly found in upscale shopping districts or inside luxury department stores. The boutiques within department stores operate independently from the department and have their own LV managers and employees. LV has recently launched an online store, through its main website, as an authorized channel to market its products.^[19]

Products[link]

Since the 19th century, manufacture of Louis Vuitton goods have not changed: Luggage is still made by hand.^[3] Contemporary Fashion gives a preview of the creation of the LV trunks: "the craftsmen line up the leather and canvas, tapping in the tiny nails one by one and securing the five-letter solid pick-proof brass locks with an individual handmade key, designed to allow the traveler to have only one key for all of his or her luggage. The wooden frames of each trunk are made of 30-year-old poplar that has been allowed to dry for at least four years. Each trunk has a serial number and can take up to 60 hours to make, and a suitcase as many as 15 hours."^[3]

Many of the company's products utilize the signature brown Damier and Monogram Canvas materials, both of which were first used in the late 19th century. All of the company's products exhibit the eponymous LV initials. The company markets its product through its own stores located throughout the world, which allows it to control product quality and pricing. It also allows LV to prevent counterfeit products entering its distribution channels. In addition, the company distributes its products through LouisVuitton.com.^[3]

Korean travel retailer Shilla Duty Free is on the verge of striking an agreement to open the world's first Louis Vuitton airport store at Seoul Incheon International airport towards the end of 2011.^[20][21]

Louis Vuitton has branched out from luggage into evening wear. Michelle Williams wore a Louis Vuitton gown to the 2012 Academy Awards. ^[22]

Advertising campaigns[link]

The Louis Vuitton company carefully cultivates a celebrity following and has used famous models, musicians, and actors such as Keith Richards, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Hayden Christensen and most recently Angelina Jolie in its marketing campaigns. Breaking from their usual traditions of employing supermodels and celebrities to advertise their products, on 2 August 2007, the company announced that the former USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev^[19] would appear in an ad campaign along with Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, and Catherine Deneuve. Many rappers, most notably Kanye West and Juicy J have mentioned the company in certain songs.

The company commonly uses print ads in magazines and billboards in cosmopolitan cities. It previously relied on selected press for its advertising campaigns (frequently involving prestigious stars like Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, Gisele Bündchen and Catherine Deneuve) shot by Annie Leibovitz. However, Antoine Arnault, director of the communication department, has recently decided to enter the world of television and cinema: The commercial (90 seconds) is exploring the theme "Where will life take you?" and is translated into 13 different languages. This is the first Vuitton commercial ad ever and was directed by renowned French ad director Bruno Aveillan.^[23]

Controversy and disputes[link]

Britney Spears video[link]

On 19 November 2007 Louis Vuitton, in further efforts to prevent counterfeiting, successfully sued Britney Spears for violating counterfeiting laws. A part of the music video for the song "Do Somethin'" shows fingers tapping on the dashboard of a hot pink Hummer with what looks like Louis Vuitton's "Cherry Blossom" design bearing the LV logo. Britney Spears herself was not found guilty, but a civil court in Paris has ordered Sony BMG and MTV Online to stop showing the video. They were also fined €80,000 to each group. An anonymous spokesperson for LVMH stated that the video constituted an "attack" on Louis Vuitton's brands and its luxury image.^[24]

'Simple Living'[link]

On 13 February 2007 Louis Vuitton sent a Cease and desist order to Danish art student Nadia Plesner for using an image of a bag that allegedly infringed Louis Vuitton's intellectual property rights. Plesner had created a satirical illustration, "Simple Living", depicting a malnourished child holding a designer dog and a designer bag, and used it on T-shirts and posters to raise funds for the charity "Divest for Darfur".^[25] On 25 March the court ruled in favour of LV that the image was a clear infringement of copyright.^[26] Despite the ruling, Plesner continued to use the image, arguing artistic freedom, and posted copies of the Cease and desist order on her website. On 15 April 2008, Louis Vuitton notified Plesner of the lawsuit being brought against her. Louis Vuitton demanded $7,500 (5,000 Euro) for each day Plesner continues to sell the "Simple Living" products, $7,500 for each day the original Cease and desist letter is published on her website and $7,500 a day for using the name "Louis Vuitton" on her website, plus legal and enforcement costs.^[27]

An LVMH spokeswoman interviewed by New York Magazine said that Louis Vuitton were forced to take legal action when Plesner did not respond to their original request to remove the contested image, nor to the subsequent Cease and desist order.^[26] In October 2008, Louis Vuitton declared that the company had dropped its lawsuit^[28] but have since reopened it along with a new €205,000 claim due to a painting by the same artist.^[29] In May 2011, the court in The Hague found in favour of Plesner's right to freedom of expression.^[30]

Craftsmen advertisements[link]

In May 2010, the British Advertising Standards Authority banned two of the company's advertising spots, depicting craftsmen at work on its products, for being in breach of its 'Truthfulness clause'. The ASA said that the evidence supplied by Louis Vuitton fell short of what was needed to prove the products were made by hand. The ASA said that the two adverts would lead consumers to interpret that Louis Vuitton bags and wallets were almost entirely hand-crafted, when they were predominantly created by machine.^[31]

The ASA stated: 'We noted that we had not seen documentation that detailed the entire production process for Louis Vuitton products or that showed the proportion of their manufacture that was carried out by hand or by machine. Vuitton denied that their production was automated, arguing that over 100 stages were involved in the making of each bag; they however admitted that sewing machines had been used in production process.'^[31]

See also[link]

• Moynat

References[link]

• Louis Vuitton Spring 2012 Collections

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Louis Vuitton

	Paris portal
	Companies portal

• Official site
• Louis Vuitton designer profile at Fashion Model Directory

Yayoi Kusama (草間 彌生 or 草間 弥生, Kusama Yayoi^?, born March 22, 1929) is a Japanese artist and writer. Throughout her career she has worked in a wide variety of mediums, including painting, collage, sculpture, performance art and environmental installations, most of which exhibit her thematic interest in psychedelic colors, repetition and pattern. A precursor of the pop art, minimalist and feminist art movements, Kusama influenced contemporaries such as Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. ^[1] Although largely forgotten after departing the New York art scene in the early 1970s, Kusama is now acknowledged as one of the most important living artists to come out of Japan, and an important voice of the avant-garde.

Born in Matsumoto, Nagano into an upper middle class family of seedling merchants^[2], Kusama started creating art at an early age, going on to study Nihonga painting in Kyoto in 1948. Frustrated with this distinctly Japanese style, she became interested in the European and American avant-garde, staging several solo exhibitions of her paintings in Matsumoto and Tokyo during the 1950s. In 1957 she moved to the United States, settling down in New York City where she produced a series of paintings influenced by the abstract expressionist movement. Switching to sculpture and installation as her primary mediums, Kusama became a fixture of the New York avant-garde, having her works exhibited alongside the likes of Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and George Segal during the early 1960s, where she became associated with the pop art movement. Embracing the rise of the hippie counterculture of the late 1960s, Kusama came to public attention after she organised a series of Body Festivals in which naked participants were painted with brightly colored polka dots.

In 1973, Kusama moved back to her native Japan, where she found the art scene far more conservative than that in New York. Becoming an art dealer, her business folded after several years, and after experiencing psychiatric problems, in 1977 she voluntarily admitted herself to a hospital, where she has spent the rest of her life. From here, she continued to produce artworks in a variety of mediums, as well as launching a literary career by publishing several novels, a poetry collection and an autobiography.

Kusama's work is based in conceptual art and shows some attributes of feminism, minimalism, surrealism, Art Brut, pop art, and abstract expressionism, and is infused with autobiographical, psychological, and sexual content. Kusama is also a published novelist and poet, and has created notable work in film and fashion design. Major retrospectives of her work have been held at the Museum of Modern Art and Tate Modern, whilst in 2008 Christies New York sold a work by her for $5.1 million, a record for a living female artist.^[3]

Biography[link]

Early life: 1929–1949[link]

Born in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture as the fourth child in a prosperous and conservative family,^[4] whose wealth was derived from the management of wholesale seed nurseries,^[5] Kusama has experienced hallucinations and severe obsessive thoughts since childhood, often of a suicidal nature. She claims that as a small child she suffered severe physical abuse by her mother.^[6] In 1948, she left home to enter senior class at Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts, where she studied Nihonga painting, a rigorous formal style developed during the Meiji period; she graduated the following year.^[7] She hated the rigidities of the master-disciple system where students were supposed to imbibe tradition through the sensei. “When I think of my life in Kyoto,” she is quoted, “I feel like vomiting.”^[8]

Early success in Japan: 1950–1956[link]

By 1950, Kusama was depicting abstracted natural forms in watercolor, gouache and oil, primarily on paper. She began covering surfaces (walls, floors, canvases, and later, household objects and naked assistants) with the polka dots that would become a trademark of her work. The vast fields of polka dots, or "infinity nets," as she called them, were taken directly from her hallucinations. The earliest recorded work in which she incorporated these dots was a drawing in 1939 at age 10, in which the image of a Japanese woman in a kimono, presumed to be the artist's mother, is covered and obliterated by spots.^[9] Her first series of large-scale, sometimes more than 30ft-long canvas paintings,^[10] Infinity Nets, were entirely covered in a sequence of nets and dots that alluded to hallucinatory visions. In the early 1960s Kusama began to cover items such as ladders, shoes and chairs with white phallic protrusions.^[11] Since 1963, Kusama has continued her series of Mirror/Infinity rooms. In these complex installations, purpose-built rooms lined with mirrored glass contain scores of neon coloured balls, hanging at various heights above the viewer. Standing inside on a small platform, light is repeatedly reflected off the mirrored surfaces to create the illusion of a never-ending space.^[12]

New York City: 1957–1972[link]

After living in Tokyo and France, Kusama left Japan at the age of 27 for New York City, following correspondence with Georgia O'Keeffe in which she became interested in joining the limelight in the city.^[13] During her time in the U.S., she quickly established her reputation as a leader in the avant-garde movement. In 1961 she moved her studio into the same building as Donald Judd and sculptor Eva Hesse; Hesse became a close friend. During the following years, she was enormously productive, and by 1966, she was experimenting with room-size, freestanding installations that incorporated mirrors, lights, and piped-in music. She counted Judd and Joseph Cornell among her friends and supporters. However, she did not profit financially from her work. Around this time, Kusama was hospitalised regularly from overwork, and O’Keeffe convinced her own dealer Edith Herbert to purchase several works in order to help Kusama stave off financial hardship.^[14]

Kusama organized outlandish happenings in conspicuous spots like Central Park and the Brooklyn Bridge, often involving nudity and designed to protest the Vietnam War. In one, she wrote an open letter to Richard Nixon offering to have sex with him if he would stop the Vietnam war.^[15] Between 1967 and 1969 she concentrated on performances held with the maximum publicity, usually involving Kusama painting polka dots on her naked performers, as in the Grand Orgy to Awaken the Dead at the MOMA (1969), which took place at the Sculpture Garden of the Museum of Modern Art.^[16] In 1968, Kusama presided over the happening Homosexual Wedding at the Church of Self-obliteration in 33 Walker Street in New York, and performed alongside Fleetwood Mac and Country Joe and the Fish at the Fillmore East, New York City.^[17]

In 1966, Kusama first participated in the 33rd Venice Biennale. Her Narcissus Garden comprised hundreds of mirrored spheres outdoors in what she called a 'kinetic carpet'. As soon as the piece was installed on a lawn outside the Italian pavilion, Kusama, dressed in a golden kimono,^[18] began selling each individual sphere for 1,200 lire ($2), until the Biennale organisers put an end to her enterprise. Perhaps one of Kusama's most notorious works, Narcissus Garden was as much about the promotion of the artist through the media as it was an opportunity to offer a critique of the mechanisation and commodification of the art market. Various versions of Narcissus Garden have been presented worldwide venues including Le Consortium, Dijon, 2000; Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2003; as part of the Whitney Biennial in Central Park, New York in 2004; and at the Jardin de Tuileries in Paris, 2010.^[19]

During her time in New York, Kusama had a decade-long sexless relationship with the American artist Joseph Cornell, Kusama's only recorded romantic attachment to date.

Return to Japan: 1973–present[link]

Yayoi Kusama's Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees at the Singapore Biennale 2006 on Orchard Road, Singapore.

In 1973, Kusama returned to Japan in ill health, where she began writing shockingly visceral and surrealistic novels, short stories, and poetry. Kusama checked herself into the Seiwa Hospital for the Mentally Ill and eventually took up permanent residence. She has been living at the hospital since, by choice. Her studio, where she has continued to produce work since the mid-1970s, is a short distance from the hospital in Shinjuku, Tokyo.^[20] Kusama is often quoted as saying: "If it were not for art, I would have killed myself a long time ago."^[21]

Yayoi Kusama said about her 1954 painting titled Flower (D.S.P.S),

One day I was looking at the red flower patterns of the tablecloth on a table, and when I looked up I saw the same pattern covering the ceiling, the windows and the walls, and finally all over the room, my body and the universe. I felt as if I had begun to self-obliterate, to revolve in the infinity of endless time and the absoluteness of space, and be reduced to nothingness. As I realized it was actually happening and not just in my imagination, I was frightened. I knew I had to run away lest I should be deprived of my life by the spell of the red flowers. I ran desperately up the stairs. The steps below me began to fall apart and I fell down the stairs straining my ankle.^{[citation needed]}

Another quote of hers:

"...a polka-dot has the form of the sun, which is a symbol of the energy of the whole world and our living life, and also the form of the moon, which is calm. Round, soft, colorful, senseless and unknowing. Polka-dots become movement... Polka dots are a way to infinity."^[22]

Her organically abstract paintings of one or two colors (the Infinity Nets series), which she began upon arriving in New York, garnered comparisons to the work of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman. When she left New York she was practically forgotten as an artist until the late 1980s and 1990s, when a number of retrospectives revived international interest.^[23] Following the success of the Japanese pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1993 – a dazzling mirrored room filled with small pumpkin sculptures in which she resided in color-coordinated magician's attire – Kusama went on to produce a huge, yellow pumpkin sculpture covered with an optical pattern of black spots. The pumpkin came to represent for her a kind of alter-ego or self-portrait.^[24] Kusama's later installation I'm Here, but Nothing, (2000–2008) is a simply furnished room consisting of table and chairs, place settings and bottles, armchairs and rugs, however its walls are tattooed with hundreds of fluorescent polka dots glowing in the UV light. The result is an endless infinite space where the self and everything in the room is obliterated.^[25] The multi-part floating work Guidepost to the New Space, a series of rounded “humps” in fire-engine red with white polka dots, was displayed in Pandanus Lake

Works[link]

Writing[link]

In 1977, Kusama published a book of poems and paintings entitled 7. One year later, her first novel Manhattan Suicide Addict appeared. Between 1983 and 1990, she finished the novels The Hustler’s Grotto of Christopher Street (1983), The Burning of St Mark’s Church (1985), Between Heaven and Earth (1988), Woodstock Phallus Cutter (1988), Aching Chandelier (1989), Double Suicide at Sakuragazuka (1989), and Angels in Cape Cod (1990), alongside several issues of the magazine S&M Sniper in collaboration with photographer Nobuyoshi Araki.^[26]

Film[link]

In 1968, the film “Kusama’s Self-Obliteration” which Kusama produced and starred in won a prize at the Fourth International Experimental Film Competition in Belgium and the Second Maryland Film Festival and the second prize at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. In 1991, Kusama starred in the film Tokyo Decadence, written and directed by Ryu Murakami, and in 1993, she collaborates with British musician Peter Gabriel on an installation in Yokohama.^[27]

Red Pumpkin (2006), Naoshima

Fashion[link]

In 1968, Kusama established Kusama Fashion Company Ltd., and began selling avantgarde fashion in the "Kusama Corner" at Bloomingdales.^[28] In 2009, Kusama designed a handbag-shaped cell phone called C-top, and My Doggie Ring-Ring, an accompanying dog-shaped holder, for a limited edition of Japan’s mobile communication giant KDDI Corporation’s “iida“ brand.^[29] In 2011, Kusama created artwork for six limited-edition lipglosses from Lancôme.^[30] That same year, she worked with Marc Jacobs (who visited her studio in Japan in 2006) on a line of Louis Vuitton products, including leather goods, ready-to-wear, accessories, shoes, watches, and jewelry.^[31]

Commissions[link]

Narcissus Garden (2009), Instituto Inhotim

To date, Kusama has completed several major outdoor sculptural commissions, mostly in the form of brightly hued monstrous plants and flowers, for public and private institutions including Pumpkin (1994) for the Fukuoka Municipal Museum of Art; The Visionary Flowers (2002) for the Matsumoto City Museum of Art; Tsumari in Bloom (2003) for Matsudai Station, Niigata; Tulipes de Shangri-La (2003) for Euralille in Lille, France; Pumpkin (2006) at Bunka-mura on Benesse Island of Naoshima; Hello, Anyang with Love (2007) for Pyeonghwa Park, Anyang; and The Hymn of Life: Tulips (2007) for the Beverly Gardens Park in Los Angeles.^[32] In 1998, she realized a mural for the hallway of Gare do Oriente subway station in Lisbon. Alongside these monumental works, she has produced smaller scale outdoor pieces including Key-Chan and Ryu-Chan, a pair of dotted dogs. All the outdoor works are cast in highly durable fiberglass-reinforced plastic, then painted in urethane to glossy perfection.^[33]

In 2010, Kusama designed a Town Sneaker-model bus, which she titled Mizutama Ranbu (Wild Polka Dot Dance) and whose route travels through her home town of Matsumoto.^[34] In 2011, she was commissioned to design the front cover of millions of pocket London Underground maps; the result is entitled Polka Dots Festival in London (2011).

Exhibitions[link]

In 1959, Kusama had her first solo exhibition in New York at the Brata Gallery, an artist's co-op. She showed a series of white net paintings which were enthusiastically reviewed by Donald Judd (both Judd and Frank Stella then acquired paintings from the show).^[35] Kusama has since exhibited work with, among others, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, and Jasper Johns. In 1962, she was the only female artist to take part in the widely acclaimed 'Nul' (Zero) international group exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. She represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 1993, and in 1998–1999 a major retrospective exhibition of her work toured the U.S. and Japan. Major exhibitions of her work include Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Fukuoka, Japan (1987); Center for International Contemporary Arts, New York (1989); "Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama,1958–1969", LACMA, 1998 (traveling to Museum of Modern Art, New York, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo), 1998–99; Le Consortium, Dijon, 2000 (traveled to Maison de la Culture du Japon, Paris; Kunsthallen Brandts, Odense, Denmark; Les Abattoirs, Toulouse; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; and Artsonje Center, Seoul, 2001–2003); "KUSAMATRIX", Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2004 (traveling to Art Park Museum of Contemporary Art, Sapporo Art Park, Hokkaido); "Eternity – Modernity", National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (touring Japan), 2004–2005; and "The Mirrored Years", Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 2008 (traveling to Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, and City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand, 2009). In August 2010, Kusama exhibited at the Aichi Triennale 2010 [1], Nagoya. Her works are exhibited inside the Aichi Arts Center, out of the center and Toyota car polka dot project. As of July 2011, several of Kusama's most intimate works are on display at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain.

As part of FINA Festival 2007, Kusama created Guidepost to the New Space, a vibrant outdoor installation for Birrarung Marr beside the Yarra River in Melbourne. In 2009, the Guideposts were re-installed at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, this time displayed as floating “humps” on a lake.^[36]

An exhibition of Kusama'a work opened at the Tate Modern in London on February 9, 2012.^[37] Described as 'akin to being suspended in a beautiful cosmos gazing at infinite worlds, or like a tiny dot of fluoresecent plankton in an ocean of glowing microscopic life'^[38], the exhibition features work from Kusama's entire career.

Collections[link]

Kusama's work is in the collections of leading museums throughout the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Tate Modern, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

Recognition[link]

Yayoi Kusama's retrospective exhibition at Tate Modern, London in early 2012.

Kusama has received numerous awards, including the Asahi Prize (2001); Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2003); and the National Lifetime Achievement Awards, the Order of the Rising Sun (2006). In October 2006, Yayoi Kusama became the first Japanese woman to receive the Praemium Imperiale, one of Japan’s most prestigious prizes for internationally recognized artists.^[39]

Art market[link]

Kusama's work has performed strongly at auction: top prices for her work are for paintings from the late 1950s and early 1960s. As of 2012, her work has the highest turnover of any living woman artist.^[40] In November 2008, Christie’s New York sold a 1959 white "Infinity Net" painting formerly owned by Donald Judd^[41], No. 2, for $5,100,000, then a record for a living female artist.^[42]

Since 2007, Kusama is represented by Gagosian Gallery , Victoria Miro Gallery and Ota Fine Arts; before moving to Gagosian, she had been with Robert Miller Gallery, New York.^[43]

In popular culture[link]

• Superchunk, an American indie band, included a song called "Art Class (Song for Yayoi Kusama)" on its Here's to Shutting Up album.

• Yoko Ono cites Kusama as an influence.

• The recently built Matsumoto Performing Art Center in her hometown Matsumoto, designed by Toyo Ito, has an entirely dotted façade, likely influenced by her works.^{[original research?]}

• She is mentioned in the lyrics of the Le Tigre song Hot Topic.

Bibliography[link]

• Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Net: The Autobiogrphy of Yayoi Kusama, 2011, English, Translated by Ralph McCarthy, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., ISBN 978-0-226-46498-5.

• Jo Applin, "Resisting Infinity", Yayoi Kusama, exch. cat., Victoria Miro Gallery, London, 2008

• Izumi Nakajima, "Yayoi Kusama between Abstraction and Pathology". In: Griselda Pollock (ed.), Psychoanalysis and the Image. London: Routledge, 2006.

• "Collection of Print Works: Yayoi Kusama, 1974–2004", Japanese/English, Abe Corporation, Tokyo Japan.

• "Eternity-Modernity: Yayoi Kusama", 2005, English/Japanese, Bijutsu Shuppan-sha Ltd, Tokyo, Japan.

• "Manhattan Suicide Addict: Yayoi Kusama", 2005, French, Les Presses du Reel, Dijon, France.

• "Kusamatrix", 2004, English/Japanese, Kadokawa Shoten, Tokyo.

• "Yayoi Kusama Furniture by graf: decorative mode no.3", 2003, Seigensha Art Publishing, Inc, Kyoto, Japan.

• "Yayoi Kusama", 2003, German, Kunsthalle wien, Vienna, Austria.

• "Infinity Nets", 2002, Japanese, Sakuhinsha, Tokyo, Japan.

• "Yayoi Kusama", 2001, French, Les Press du Reel Janvier, Dijon, France.

• "Yayoi Kusama", 2000, English, Phaidon Press Ltd, London, UK.

• "Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama, 1958–1968", Los Angeles County Museum of Art 1998, Lynn Zelevansky, Laura Hoptman, Yayoi Kusama

• "Violet Obsession", 1998, English, Wandering Mind Books, Berkeley, California, U.S.A.

• "Hustlers Grotto", 1998, English, Wandering Mind Books, Berkeley, California, U.S.A.

• J. F. Rodenbeck, "Yayoi Kusama: Surface, Stitch, Skin". In: Catherine de Zegher (ed.), Inside the Visible. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston & MIT Press, 1996.

• "Yayoi Kusama Print Works", 1992, Abe Corporation, Tokyo, Japan.

• "Yayoi Kusama: Driving Image", 1986, Parco shuppan, Tokyo, Japan.

• "A Book of Poems and Paintings", 1977, Japan Edition Art, Tokyo, Japan.

• Judy B. Cutler, "Narcissus, Narcosis, Neurosis: The Visions of Yayoi Kusama". In: Hirsh, Jennie, and Wallace, Isabelle D., eds. Contemporary Art and Classical Myth. Farnham: Ashgate, 2011.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Yayoi Kusama

• Official Site
• Kusama products at Tate Online Shop
• Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama, 1958–1968, Museum of Modern Art
• Gallerist
• Yayoi Kusama Painting|Biography, and Historical Information
• Kusama Documentary
• Video promoting Walking In My Mind at the Hayward Gallery
• Yayoi Kusama – Mirrored Years MCA Sydney, Australia
• Portrait of Yayoi Kusama
• Phoenix Art Museum online
• 2007 Interview at ArtReview.com
• [2]

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the French Wikipedia. (March 2012) Don't speak French? Click here to read a machine-translated version of the French article. Click [show] on the right to review important translation instructions before translating. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|fr|Bruno Aveillan}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

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Bruno Aveillan (born in Toulouse, France) is a film maker, a photographer and a multimedia artist.

Communication[link]

Bruno Aveillan is one of the most distinguished and internationally sought after directors across the globe in the ad industry. After graduating from Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Toulouse, he joined Quad Productions in Paris in 1995. Since then, he has directed award-winning short experimental movies and international commercials for clients such as Orange, Lanvin, Perrier, Louis Vuitton, Audi, Nike, Paco Rabanne, Quézac, Lexus, Guerlain, Rochas, Jaguar, Samsung, Nissan, SFR, Chanel, Time Warner, Volvo, MaxMara, Miller, Nintendo, Coca Cola, Toyota, Peugeot etc.

One of his very early spots in his directing career, Perrier "La Foule", received an avalanche of international awards. In 1999, succeeding the directors Lars von Trier and Roland Joffé, Bruno Aveillan directed the new episode in the advertising sage for CNP. Additionally, he directed the launch commercial for Lanvin perfume "Oxygène". It is during this spot that Gisele Bundchen makes her debut on screen. During his career Bruno Aveillan has also filmed world renowned stars such as Monica Bellucci, Claudia Schiffer, Shalom Harlow, Amy Smart, Tina Balthazar, Sharon Stone, Catherine Hurley, Rachel Weisz, Milla Jovovich, Freida Pinto, Leila Bekhti, Jessica Stam, Inna Zobova, Louise Pedersen, Julia Stegner, Estelle Lefébure, Elsa Benitez, Mylène Farmer, Morgane Dubled, Vlada Roslyakova, Sunniva Stordahl, Virginie Ledoyen, etc.

Aveillan has also directed a series of commercials for Thermasilk in which he has created and captured a unique dream and poetic world. His spot for Nissan-Infinity "Athem" was presented during the premiere of the 2002 Oscar ceremony. Alongside Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone, Aveillan has directed four commercials for the launch of the brand Orange. He has worked in collaboration with the Land Artist Nils Udo to create unique visual worlds for the perfume Mahora from Guerlain. In 2006, he also worked with fashion designer Olivier Theyskens for the launch of the new Rochas Fragrance (Starring Model Jessica Stam).

His famous commercial for Magnum, "5 senses", was directed in an experimental manner and has received international acclaim (including European Effie Award).

In 2008, Aveillan directed the first ever brand campaign for Louis Vuitton: "Where will life take you" (90" format, translated into 14 languages). This spot evokes "the soul of travel". It has received international awards including 2008 Gold Clio Award, Gold Award at the 2008 London International Awards, Epica, Cristal. The music was composed by Gustavo Santaolalla.

In 2009, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre had a retrospective of his work within their major exhibition devoted to cinema in advertising.

In 2010, he shot the campaign for Shangri-La that metaphorically presents a philosophy imbued by generosity and humanism. This spot and tells the story of a man who has been adopted and saved by wolves. In 2011, Swarovski enlisted directly Aveillan to create a cinema short movie that would conjure Swarovski’s more than one-hundred-year heritage on the big screen.

In beginning of 2012, the House of Cartier announced the international release of its new "L'Odyssee de Cartier,” a three-and-one-half minute film directed by Bruno Aveillan. The short film, which chronicles Cartier's 165 year history, was first screened at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on 29 February 2012.

Bruno Aveillan is now developing a feature film project with Universal, a modern fairy tale based on the Cinderella story, with Ann Peacock as a writer.^[1]

Aveillan also supports the action of NGO such as Reporters without Borders and the Food bank for whom he has shot several commercials.

Awards[link]

Bruno Aveillan has won a multitude of awards and many of his commercials have become a reference for cinematographic brilliance.

• From 1995 to 2011, the awards include: Golden Globe New York, Prix Stratégie, Art Director Club (France, UK, Italy, Allemagne), London International Awards, AdFest, TV Gold ADDY's, New York Festival, Toucan d'Or, Art & Technology award, EuroEffies, Ad Masters, Festival de Cannes, AEAF, Lions Awards, Clio Awards, European Film Cristal, Ars Electronica, Epica, Mobius award, Gold Werbefilmpreis, Golden award of Montreux, Siggraph, Spike Awards, etc.
• Bruno Aveillan is the only director who has twice won the Grand Prix Imagina award in 1998 (Perrier La Foule) and in 2003 (GDF Dolce Vita).
• 2000, "Best Director of the year" in France CB News magazine
• 2003, "Director on TOP" Boards magazine.
• 2004, he was classified among the five best French advertising film directors, alongside the likes of Remy Belvaux and Frederic Planchon (Lürzer'z Archive)
• 2005, The experimental film "MINOTAUR-EX" by Bruno Aveillan, with the Dance Company 'Cave Canem' received the prize of exceptional work and the Grand Prix of the public in the "Clays" Festival 2005. He was also jury finalist at the "Dance One Camera Festival 2007 of New York" and selected at the "Silverlake Festival of Los Angeles".
• 2009, he was classified among the three best French advertising film directors of the decade (Lürzer'z Archive)

Contemporary art[link]

As a visual artist, Aveillan has developed his art in a singular, dense and syncretical manner, which encompasses experimental films and personal photographs. The central reoccurring themes of effacement, memory and the human body play a major role in his work. His art work has been frequently exhibited and has won many festival awards. Aveillan regularly collaborated with the choreographer Philippe Combes (Company Cave Canem) and directed several experimental short films on the subject of dance, gesture and the body. His film “Minotaur-Ex” with original music composed by Laurent Garnier, the project “Morpholab” with the composer Raphael Ibanez de Garayo. In 2008 and 20098, Aveillan had two large personal photographic exhibitions entitled “DIOTOPES #1 and DIOTOPES #2 at the Galerie Léo Scheer in Paris which included a 10 minute shortfilm (music by Raphael Ibanez de Garayo). A book dedicated to this work was published by Editions Léo Scheer in the collection “Janvier” that also represents the work of contemporary artists Claude Lévêque, Thomas Lélu and Edouard Levé. On their website, the publisher Léo Scheer commented, “ Bruno Aveillan is part of the generation of multimedia artists whose approach unveils a permanent quest for a diversifications of supports. We think of Doug Aikten or Chris Cunningham who, whilst they regularly direct video clips and advertising commercials , they also conceive installations in contemporary galleries ».

Exhibitions[link]

As a multimédia artist, Aveillan's body of work ranges from photography, experimental movies, video works, and installations. Aveillan's work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions.

Group

• 2002, Parcours 21. Galerie Pin-up Paris.
• 2004, Autoportraits. Galerie Pin-up Paris.
• 2006, Silver Lake Film Festival. Los Angeles.
• 2007, DFA's 35th. Dance Film Association Inc. New York.
• 2007, Independent Film Show 2007. EM Arts Naples. [1]
• 2007, Dance for the Camera. Film Society of Lincoln Center New York.
• 2007, Hustler of culture. Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Chicago
• 2007, DIAF 2007. International Arts Festival Dehli.
• 2007, ROMP !. Suddenly Dance Theatre Victoria BC.
• 2007, DKF Muranow. Wprost i Kultura Varsovie.
• 2009, 1968–2008, 40 ans de films publicitaires à la télévision. Musée des Arts Décoratifs Paris-Louvre.[2]
• 2010, Parcours céramique - La scène française contemporaine. Musée des Arts Décoratifs Paris-Louvre.
• 2011, CUTLOG, International Contemporary Art Fair, Paris.
• 2011, THE OTHERS, International Contemporary Art Fair, Turin.
• 2012, OFF BRUSSELS, International Contemporary Art Fair, Brussels.

Solo

• 2008, DIOTOPES. Galerie Léo Scheer Paris [3].
• 2008, DIOTOPES II. Galerie Léo Scheer, Paris.
• 2010, MNEMO#LUX. Camera Work Gallery, Berlin.
• 2011, FASCINATIO - FULGURATIO. Galerie spree, Paris.

Bibliography[link]

• (French) FASCINATIO, Editions Higgins
• (French) FULGURATIO, Editions Higgins
• (English) MNEMO#LUX, Kerber Ed., Collection PhotoArt. ISBN 978-3-86678-463-5
• (English) Diotopes, Léo Sheer Ed. . ISBN 978-2-7561-0131-6
• (French) Parcours 21, Studio Pin Up Ed.
• (English) Autoportraits, Studio Pin Up Ed.

References[link]

• (French) Gérard Lefort, « Apocalypse bulles », in Libération [4], January 4, 1998
• (French) Laurence Armengau, "B. Aveillan : l'idée c'est ce qui vieillit le moins vite", in CB News, June 22, 1998
• (French) C.L., "XS by Bruno Aveillan", in Elle, December 9, 1998
• (French) Gérard Leford, "Le rêve et la Ricoré", in Libération [5], May 8, 1999
• (English) Patricia Winters Lauro, "Thermasilk enters the realm of fairy tales, dragons and special effects", in The New York Times [6], May 8, 2000
• (English) Kathy Desalvo " Director Bruno Aveillan crafts Fantastic - and heated - story", in Shoot [7], May 18, 2001
• (English) Therese Balduzzi « Directors on Top : Bruno Aveillan », in Boards magazine [8], May 1, 2002
• (English) Anne Rose Schlutbohm "A whiff of perfume", in Archive, January 2004
• (French) M.P.« GDF : un savoir-faire révélé en beauté », in Le Figaro, May 3, 2004
• (English) Markus Albert "Sin and sensuality", in Archive, February 2005
• (English) Liza Klaussmann "Creatives on verge : Bruno Aveillan", in Variety, June 2006
• (English) Stephane Zissu "Zom Art : Bruno Aveillan", in Kromag 04 [9], May 2007
• (English) Shots "AVEILLAN'S EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE", in Shots 6 February 2008 [10], 6 February 2008
• (French) Clément Ghis Louis Vuitton fait son cinéma, in Libération Next, 22 February 2008 [11]
• (French) Jérome Beglé Culture Evènement : M. Farmer comme vous ne l'avez jamais vue, in Paris Match, 3 July 2008
• (English) Michael Kimmelman, Arts : In France Ads Aim at Heart..., in The New York Times, 18 February 2009 [12]
• (English) Stephen Whelan, Fleetings Moments, in Shots # 113, February 2009 [13]
• (English) Justin Kroll "U taps scribe for Cinderella rethink", in Variety, Sep 2011
• (Italian) Maddalena Fossati "Minuti preziosi", in Vanity Fair, March 2012
• (English) Gabriel Beltrone"Jewelry house storms three major networks in prime time with Bruno Aveillan's fantastical history lesson", in ADWEEK, March 2012 [14]
• (English) "Bruno Aveillan's "L'Odysée" for Cartier Dazzles the Ad Industry", in SourceEcreative, March 2012 [15]
• (French) Raphaelle Elkrief Le luxe se met en scène, in Le Monde.fr, 23 Mars 2012 [16]
• (French) Television : Interview of Bruno Aveillan in La vie des médias on TF1. December 21, 2003 (Archives INA)
• (English) Radio : Interview of Bruno Aveillan by Philip Dodd in Night Waves on BBC. April 09, 2012

External links[link]

• Bruno Aveillan at the Internet Movie Database
• http://newindustryarts.com/video/brunoaveillan/#/1/brunoaveillan/shangrila
• http://www.quad.fr/directors/bruno-aveillan/
• http://www.kromotion.com/blognews/index.php?Kroma
• http://privatecurators.com/photographic-exhibition-bruno-aveillans-mnemolux-wonders-of-light-and-memory-at-epicentro-art/
• http://www.art-report.com/de/events/mnemolux

The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. Please help to establish notability by adding reliable, secondary sources about the topic. If notability cannot be established, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. (April 2010)

Olivier Zahm (born September 1963) is the founder and owner of the French fashion and culture magazine Purple.

Career[link]

Olivier Zahm worked as a freelance arts journalist contributing to Artforum, Flash Art, Art Press and Texte Zur Kunst during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Zahm is an art curator and has selected exhibitions for PS1, MoMA, and Centre Pompidou.^{[citation needed]}

In 1992, Zahm founded Purple Prose magazine (1992–1998) with Elein Fleiss—the publication has also evolved spin-offs like Purple Fiction (1992–1998), Purple Sexe (1998–2001), Purple magazine (1998–2003), Purple Journal (2004–present), Purple Fashion (1995–1998, 2004–present), and Purple Books, a publishing house.^[1] The Purple Anthology was published by Rizzoli in 2008, encompassing the first 15 years of Purple.^[2][3]

The "realistic", sometimes dubbed "anti-fashion"-, aesthetics of Purple was a reaction against the glamour of the 80’s, and can be linked with the global counterculture of that time, with the work of Juergen Teller, Terry Richardson, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Mario Sorrenti.^[4]

Since 2004, Zahm has been editor-in-chief of Purple Fashion, a biannual magazine attempting to bridge the worlds of art and fashion. Zahm also runs the Paris-based think tank Purple Institute, an art direction society and consulting company aimed at creating links between the art world and industry.^[5] He also created "La communauté des amants".^[6][7][8][9]

Olivier Zahm founded Purple Diary^[10][11] in 2009 and had a show of his photographic work at Colette in March 2010.^[12][13][14]

External links[link]

• purple DIARY
• Olivier’s MySpace Profile
• Purple’s website
• Olivier Zahm on Sgustok Magazine
• Olivier Zahm: For Fashion’s Bad Boy, No Secrets in New York Times
• Style.com's The Future of Fashion Part Four: Olivier Zahm
• Gawker – Meet Olivier Zahm: Either the Best or Worst Human Being in New York
• Black Book – Olivier Zahm Incarnates Magazine, Has Five Friends
• T Magazine – Asked & Answered | Olivier Zahm
• GQ – 10 Essentials | Olivier Zahm
• The Sunday Times – People Like Them | Olivier Zahm
• Artnet – ZAHM BAM!

References[link]

Russell Peters
Russell Peters in 2009
Birth name	Russell Dominic Peters
Born	(1970-09-29) September 29, 1970 (age 41) Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Medium	Stand-up, Television, Film, Radio
Nationality	Canadian
Years active	1989–present
Genres	Satire, Improvisational comedy, Black comedy
Subject(s)	Racism, Race relations, Stereotypes, Multiculturalism, Indian culture
Influences	George Carlin,[1] Steve Martin, Cheech and Chong,[2] Don Rickles,[3] Eddie Murphy
Spouse	Monica Diaz (2010–2012) 1 child
Website	RussellPeters.com

Russell Dominic Peters (born September 29, 1970)^[4] is a Canadian comedian, actor and disc jockey. He began performing in Toronto in 1989 and has been nominated for four Gemini Awards.

Early life[link]

Russell Peters was born in Brampton, Ontario, Canada to Eric and Maureen Peters. His family is of Anglo-Indian ancestry and is Catholic.^[4] His father was born in Bombay, Maharashtra, India, and worked as a federal meat inspector; he is regularly mentioned and featured in his comedy work.^[5] His mother was born in Calcutta, West Bengal, India. He has an older brother named Clayton who was born in Calcutta.^[6] Russell attended Chinguacousy Secondary School for grades 9–10, and North Peel Secondary School for grades 11–12 in Brampton.^[7][8][9]

Career[link]

Peters began performing in Toronto in 1989. Peters' popularity extends to several countries. He has since also performed in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Afghanistan, Sweden, South Africa, India, the Caribbean, Philippines, Vietnam, mainland China, Canada, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, France, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Norway, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Trinidad among other places.

Peters attribute performance he did on the Canadian TV comedy series Comedy Now! that was uploaded onto YouTube and became viral.^[10] While the initial video upload featured his performance in its 45 minute entirety, subsequent videos uploaded by other YouTube users were snippets of that performance, chopped into each of the cultural groups he targeted. According to Peters, those snippets made their way to those specified cultural groups, and were well received by them.^[11]

Notable performances[link]

In Canada, Peters became the first comedian to sell out Toronto's Air Canada Centre,^[12] with more than 16,000 tickets in two days for the single show. He ended up selling over 30,000 tickets nationally over the two-day sales period. A total of over 60,000 tickets were sold across six cities.^{[citation needed]} His show in Sydney, Australia on 15 May 2010 had an audience of 13,880, making it the largest stand-up comedy show in Australian history.^[13] He broke a UK comedy sales record at London's O2 Arena when he sold over 16,000 tickets to his show on 2009.^[14]

He hosted the Canada Day Comedy Festival 2006. Peters participated in a USO tour of Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Africa and Greenland in November 2007 with Wilmer Valderrama and Mayra Veronica.^[15]. Peters also currently produces and stars on the radio situation comedy series, Monsoon House, on CBC Radio One.

Peters was the host of the 2008 Juno Awards televised ceremonies in Calgary on April 6, 2008,^[16] for which he won a Gemini Award for "Best Performance or Host in a Variety Program or Series". The 2008 awards broadcast received the second-highest ratings ever for the program. He was asked to host the Juno Awards for a second year in a row. The 2009 Juno Awards took place in Vancouver on March 29, 2009.

Publications[link]

His comedy special Russell Peters: Outsourced, aired on Comedy Central on August 16, 2006. The DVD version features his uncensored performance. The DVD has been popular, especially in Canada, selling over 100,000 copies. Outsourced remained on the National DVD Chart over one and a half years after release. Peters released a second DVD/CD combo Russell Peters: Red, White, and Brown in Canada in September 2008 and in the US on January 27, 2009. The DVD/CD was recorded on February 2, 2008, at The WAMU Theatre at Madison Square Garden. Peters and his brother, Clayton Peters, who is also his manager, self-produced and financed Red, White and Brown. In May 2011, Peters released Russell Peters: The Green Card Tour a live performance recorded in front of a total audience of 30,000 over a two-night performance at O2 Arena in London, England.^[17]

On October 26, 2010, Peters released his autobiography, Call me Russell, co - written with his brother Clayton and Dannis Koromilas.

Earnings[link]

According to Forbes.com, Peters earned an estimated $15 million between June 2009 and June 2010, continuing his run as one of the highest-paid comedians after earning an estimated $5 million in the prior year's report. He was ranked as the 7th highest paid comedian by Forbes.^[18][19]

Comedic style[link]

Russell Peters' stand-up performances are mostly made up of observational comedy where he uses humour to highlight racial, ethnic, class and cultural stereotypes. He often refers his own life experiences growing up in an Indian family and impersonates various English accents of different groups in his act to poke fun at each group. As Peters told an audience in San Francisco, "I don't make the stereotypes, I just see them."^[20] Russell Peters uses his minority status to allow him to poke fun at different races in his performance, but according to an interview done for The National, he does not intend to put down or offend different races and cultures, but instead tries to raise them up through humour.^[21]

Peters' is widely known for his comedy punchlines "Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad" in which he tells a joke about his childhood with a traditional Indian father who would use corporal punishment and “Be a man!" while imitating an Asian trying to get him to pay more for an item at a shop.^[22]

Personal life[link]

Peters proposed to girlfriend Monica Diaz on July 10, 2010, at the Los Angeles International Airport. He announced the engagement via Twitter.^[23][24] The couple married on August 20, 2010 at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. The wedding was attended by about 20 guests, including an Elvis impersonator. Peters and Diaz had their first child, a girl, who was due to be born on February 23, 2011. When announcing the pregnancy, Peters told The Canadian Press, "Did I get married because she was knocked up? I would say that expedited it." His daughter was born two and a half months early (on December 14, 2010), but was healthy as Peters stated on his Twitter. She was given the name Crystianna Marie Peters.

Peters lives in Los Angeles and owns two homes there. He also owns homes in Las Vegas and Vaughan, Ontario.^[25]

Filmography[link]

Television and film appearances[link]

Peters has appeared in a few films, most recently in the 2011 Canadian-Punjabi movie titled Speedy Singhs alongside Camilla Belle, Anupham Kher, and Vinay Virmani. He has also appeared in Senior Skip Day starring Larry Miller, Tara Reid, and Gary Lundy. Besides this, he has also had short appearances in the 1994 film Boozecan as Snake's Friend, the 1999 film Tiger Claws III as Detective Elliott, the 2004 film My Baby's Daddy as the obstetrician, the 2006 film Quarter Life Crisis as Dilip Kumar, the 2007 film The Take as Dr. Sharma, and the 2008 film Senior Skip Day as Uncle Todd.

Peters starred in a Christmas special,A Russell Peters Christmas aired in Canada on 1 December, 2011. Guests included Michael Bublé, Pamela Anderson, Jon Lovitz among others.^[27]

He also acted in Duncan Jones's movie Source Code as Max, an amateur comedian with a bad attitude, and is scheduled to star as "Pervius" in National Lampoon's The Legend of Awesomest Maximus.^[28]

Acting roles – television

• "Comics Without Borders" (2008)
• Russell Peters: Red, White and Brown (2008)
• Senior Skip Day/High School's Day Off (Australia title) (2008)- Uncle Todd
• Bob's Burgers - "Moody Foodie" (Season 2, Episode 7) - Tran

Appearances on television

• "A Russell Peters Christmas" - Himself (1 December 2011)
• "Lopez Tonight" - Himself (2010)
• "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" – Himself (2009)
• "The 9th Annual Canadian Comedy Awards" (2008)- Himself (Winner – Best Large Venue Stand-up)
• "CBC News: The Hour" .... Himself – Episode dated 18 September 2008 (2008) TV episode .... Himself
• "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" – Himself – Episode dated 15 February 2008 (2008)
• "Def Comedy Jam" – Episode #8.4 (2008) TV episode – Himself/Comedian
• "Pulse: The Desi Beat" – Episode #1.9 (2007) TV episode – Himself
• "Video on Trial" – Episode #3.3 (2007) TV episode – Himself
• "Comics Unleashed" – Episode #1.6 (2009) TV episode- Himself
• The 4th Annual Canadian Comedy Awards (2039) – Himself
• The 5th Annual Canadian Comedy Awards (2004) – Nominee (Male Stand-up)
• MTV Cribs (Where he featured on two different episodes)
• "8 out of 10 Cats" (Season 12, Episode 9)

Self

• Heckler (2007)
• Let's All Hate Toronto (2007)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Russell Peters (26 July 2011). Call Me Russell. Random House Digital, Inc.. ISBN 978-0-385-66965-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=Man0-BpnFjkC&pg=PP1. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Russell Peters

• Russell named first Toronto ambassador