PARIS — Saoirse Ronan and Lisa are pretty as a picture in Louis Vuitton’s spring campaign, and for good reason: The two brand ambassadors were shot in front of works by French contemporary artist Laurent Grasso.
Marking their campaign debut for the house, the images shot by Steven Meisel play with the scale and atmosphere of the retro-futuristic paintings by Grasso, whose otherworldly landscapes were also featured on three looks during the runway show held in October in the Cour Carrée of the Louvre museum.
The multidisciplinary artist said he felt a natural kinship with Nicolas Ghesquière, artistic director of women’s collections at Vuitton.
“For instance, I was really struck by the way he chooses special and highly significant locations to stage his runway shows,” he told WWD.
“That’s something I’ve focused on a lot with my work, because I believe that places have a power and a vibration, which I’ve tried to capture, as I’ve made about 20 films, each one focusing on very specific locations and situations,” he added.
Saoirse Ronan in the Louis Vuitton spring campaign.
Steven Meisel/Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
The two also share a fascination for science fiction and what Ghesquière calls “time clash” – in the case of this collection, Renaissance-inspired silhouettes.
The Vuitton campaign, which breaks on Thursday, features three works from Grasso’s “Studies Into the Past” series blending historical techniques and compositions with the anachronistic presence of a black rectangle, reminiscent of the monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi classic “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
The oil-on-wood paintings are based on “Orchid Island,” a black-and-white film shot in Taiwan that showcases an idealized vision of nature.
“I’ve always used travels in time and history as a means of twisting reality and not sticking to the present time in a way that’s too literal or documentary, but instead to create fictions that help us to reflect about now,” he explained. “In that, I see a similarity with Nicolas’ inspirations and historical obsessions.”
Grasso was thrilled with the way the campaign taps into pop culture with two brand ambassadors who are at the peak of their success. “I find the mix of the brand, their work and my paintings — in the background, obviously — an absolutely incredible cocktail,” he said.
Blackpink‘s Lisa in the Louis Vuitton spring campaign.
Steven Meisel/Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
The French fashion house said Lisa, born Lalisa Manobal, and Ronan embody the notion of “soft power” that inspired Ghesquière’s spring collection.
A member of the phenomenally successful K-pop group Blackpink, Manobal — who has 105 million followers on Instagram — is solidifying her solo career as she prepares to make her major screen debut by starring in Season Three of the hit HBO series “The White Lotus,” which will be set in her native Thailand.
With four Oscar nominations under her belt, Ronan has been active for more than two decades and is lauded for the breadth and emotivity of her work in movies including “Little Women,” “Brooklyn” and “Atonement.”
The actress, who turned 30 last year, took home the best actress Golden Globe for her performance in Greta Gerwig’s 2017 coming-of-age film “Lady Bird” and recently branched out into producing with “The Outrun,” based on Amy Liptrot’s bestselling memoir.
Saoirse Ronan in the Louis Vuitton spring campaign.
Steven Meisel/Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
Grasso said he was grateful for the opportunity to reach a wider audience, noting that he has created a number of public Art works, including “SolarWind,” a light installation overlooking the Paris ring road.
He noted that young people in Asia, in particular, respond well to his work, as it borrows from the aesthetics of video games or sci-fi worlds. Grasso, who is represented by Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris and Sean Kelly in New York City, will present “Orchid Island” at Art Basel Hong Kong in March.
And in August, he will have a solo show at the Heredium museum in Daejeon, South Korea, that will reprise his exhibition “Clouds Theory,” which provided the inspiration for another recent collaboration, with Roman jeweler Bulgari on a limited-edition Octo Finissimo watch.
“It’s a real gift for an artist to reach as many people as possible, and to get away from the sometimes self-enforced elitism and exclusivity of the art world,” he said. “Dabbling in other spheres allows me to do something I’ve always wanted to, which is to take my work out of this bubble and share it with people who weren’t expecting it.”
