CELINE ART PROJECT: NOTES ON ART, LUXURY, AND THE SOPHISTICATION OF ARTIST CAPITALISM

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the transformations that have occurred in recent decades in the creative circuits from the increasingly intersections between business and art; analyzing in particular the relationship between the luxury industry and contemporary art materialized in the Celine Art Project, of the French brand Celine, belonging to the LVMH conglomerate. Using a crossed method between social history and art sociology, this work intends to demonstrate how the absorption of artists by luxury houses has been recurrent as a strategy to increase their cultural capital. A phenomenon focused on the symbolic enhancement of products and the shopping experience, its consequences can still be seen in the creation of co-dependencies between emerging artists and the corporations.

KEYWORDS
Celine Art Project; Hedi Slimane; Contemporary Art; Luxury; Artist Capitalism