For the first time, architect Frank Gehry, winner of the 1989 Pritzker Prize*, is putting his art to work in shop windows. From September onwards, store windows will unveil his sculptures and present the autumn-winter 2014 collection.
Largely inspired by the plume of sails on schooners and schooners of yesteryear, these sculptural elements consist of a metal-covered wooden frame.
“They’re like sails inflated by a tailwind. We call them Wind Wing”, says the architect.
Swollen shells of curved metal, twisted, oblong, hyperbolic and associated in groups with each other, they partially cover, roll up, brush against and caress each other. They still stand up like an equestrian caparison, like a mantilla of scales. They are simultaneously sails and hulls.
Shells, envelopes, armor, corsets, robe-fourreaux, they pay homage to architecture and fashion, two arts of body protection.
Static, yet they capture movement. For Frank Gehry, architecture and sculpture must be dynamic.
From September onwards, Louis Vuitton’ s window displays will dance on imaginary waves.
Created in shades of blue, grey, brown and rosewood, iridescent, shimmering, iridescent in the light, splashed with sparkles and reflections, almost liquid at times, these sculptures are reminiscent of those by Frank Stella, another Frank, and a close friend of Gehry’s, a closeness acknowledged by the architect himself.
With their subtle combinatorics, these basic elements allow for a variety of combinations. Like a composer with notes, a conductor with instrumentalists, Frank Gehry plays with his metal sails to breathe elegance and lightness into the Louis Vuitton showcases.
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