Ruinart collaborates with artist David Shrigley

Champagne Ruinart has collaborated with British artist David Shrigley to produce a number of works based on the maison, its wines, cellars and vineyards.

Every year Ruinart commissions an artist for a carte blanche exhibition, drawing on the house’s history and cellars as inspiration for new works of art.

In 2018, for example, Ruinart invited the ‘disappearing’ Chinese artist Liu Bolin to blend seamlessly into the landscape in its crayères and vineyards.

This year the renowned British artist David Shrigley has produced a series of drawings and sculptures in his “re-interpretation” of the famous Champagne house. He has dubbed the collection: “Unconventional Bubbles”.

He explained: “When making art on the subject of Champagne production: one must make several visits to the Champagne region; one must visit the crayères and the vineyards and the production facilities; and one must ask questions of the people who work there and listen very carefully to what they say. And most importantly you must drink some Champagne.

“For this project, I made one hundred drawings based on my experiences of being at Maison Ruinart. I was really aware that less than a third of those would be used, that two out of every three would be discarded.

“That is the way I usually work. If I want 30 drawings, I need to make 90 drawings— and sometimes more than that.”

The work will be unveiled in Paris tomorrow (6 March) and will then be exhibited at the various international contemporary art exhibitions worldwide that Maison Ruinart is a partner of.

As well as the artwork, Shrigley has also designed a limited edition work – of just 30 pieces – to go with Jeroboams of Ruinart and which reference all of the elements required to make wine, from sun and rain, to bees, worms and microorganisms as well as people.

A limited selection of some of Shrigley’s drawings are featured on the following pages.

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