Dom Pérignon Tribute To Jean-Michel Basquiat
Dom Pérignon and Jean-Michel Basquiat are two legends separated by time and space, but each in their own way, they embodied the culture of their era and shaped that of future eras. Their creative trajectories are profoundly different, yet not divergent. With a special edition of the Vintage 2015, Dom Pérignon pays tribute to an artist deeply rooted in his origins, who formed one of the most iconic and powerful artistic expressions of our time.
In this alchemy between creativity and innovation lies a major affinity with Dom Pérignon’s vision of heritage: to remain faithful to it, one must renew it incessantly. Basquiat’s itinerant and experimental creativity resonates with Dom Pérignon’s and his conviction that any form of artistic creation, regardless of the discipline, invites playing with constraints by considering them as values and challenges.
In this same duality between savoir-faire and the unpredictable, selection and assemblage, precision, and improvisation, common to artistic creation and that of fine wines, lies also the uniqueness of French excellence. Basquiat particularly loved and appreciated his stays in France. Similarly, his aesthetic vision allowed him to make extraordinary the most modest materials and references.
The complexity found in Basquiat’s work and Dom Pérignon’s wines also represents a convergence between the aesthetic ideal of Dom Pérignon and Basquiat’s ars creativa. In both cases, the creative act that gives tangible existence to the aesthetic vision always demonstrates its ability to resolve the apparent paradox of opposites. This sensibility is certainly a factor that has allowed Basquiat’s work to touch audiences of all eras and that allows Dom Pérignon to extend his vision to ever-new cultures and audiences
For nearly three decades, Dom Pérignon has initiated collaborations with artists and creators, chosen from among the most radical of contemporary sensibilities. And since the path of reinvention is always new and surprising, the collaborations initiated so far have deliberately engaged personalities from all horizons.
To stay in phase with utmost contemporary creation, Dom Pérignon inaugurated, in 2005, a series of close exchanges with the multifaceted world of decorative arts and the hybrid universe of pop culture. The dialogue began with Karl Lagerfeld and continued to the invitation to the two prodigies of the pop-rock scene, Lenny Kravitz and Lady Gaga.
In 2024, the choice of Jean-Michel Basquiat extends a symbolic red thread traced by Dom Pérignon between three key figures of pop art. The tribute to pioneer Andy Warhol led the way in 2010, with a unique collection of three bottles of Vintage 2000, each with its distinct label in red, blue, or yellow, paying homage to Warhol’s iconic colour games.
In 2013, the Maison’s passion for pop art was renewed with the invitation addressed to Jeff Koons, the notable neo-pop artist and, finally, the tribute to Basquiat gives voice to the iconoclast who criticized and challenged pop, confronting it with the harshness of the neo-expressionist and street art movement.
For this tribute to Jean-Michel Basquiat, Dom Pérignonchose a work by the artist that is as meaningful as it is enigmatic, In Italian (1983). (©Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York.)
Dom Pérignon’s tribute to Jean-Michel Basquat takes the form of a special edition of 2015 Vintage coffrets. The design of these was imagined according to the principle of assemblage, dear to both Dom Pérignon and Basquiat. The series includes three different boxes, each depicting a part of Basquiat’s painting, which can be reassembled by bringing the coffrets together.
To further strengthen the sense of the encounter between Dom Pérignon and Basquiat, each of the three parts of the artwork was studied in its components so that the name and emblem of the Maison harmoniously inscribe themselves on the box within the color fields of the painting, maximizing the sophisticated interplay of its forms and lines.
A true seal to this tribute, the label on the bottles, also created in three color variants, bears the hybrid emblem of the three-branched crown superimposed on the shield.