傑夫·昆斯與H&M合作推出新奇手袋

AMONG THE IMAGES inscribed on Jeff Koons’s consciousness is a black-and-white photograph of the legendary art dealer Leo Castelli presenting a bronze Jasper Johns flag to President John F. Kennedy. For Mr. Koons, the moment was a watershed. “People from film, music and other areas of the arts have always participated in the popular culture,” he said. “But before that time, the fine arts had been neglected.”

傑夫·昆斯(Jeff Koons)頭腦中銘記了各種畫面，其中有這樣一張黑白照片——傳奇藝術商利奧·卡斯泰利(Leo Castelli)把賈斯珀·瓊斯(Jasper Johns)的銅製旗幟送給約翰·F·肯尼迪(John F. Kennedy)總統。對昆斯來說，那一刻是個分水嶺。“電影、音樂和其他藝術領域的人總是參與到流行文化中來，”他說，“但是在那之前，美術一直被忽視。”

Mr. Koons, now 59, has in fact dedicated much of his three-decade career to making sure that visual arts get their fair shake. Canny self-promotion and the sensational nature of the work itself have ensured that his kitsch-imbued vacuum cleaners, outsize children’s playthings and copulating couples impress not just art-world insiders but the public at large.

昆斯今年59歲，實際上，在他30年的事業生涯中，有一大半都用來確保視覺藝術得到公正對待。精明的自我推銷和作品本身的極佳品質確保他那些充滿媚俗之感的吸塵器、超大的兒童玩具、交媾的情侶不僅讓藝術界的圈內人，而且讓廣大公衆印象深刻。

Which goes some way toward explaining why Mr. Koons was mingling on a rainy night last week in a crowd that included the actress Olivia Wilde, the model Alek Wek, the blogger Leandra Medine and the British musician Birdy at the opening of H&M’s store at Fifth Avenue and 48th Street.

這在一定程度上能解釋爲什麼上週的一個雨夜，H&M在第五大道和第48街的店鋪開業時，昆斯也在人羣中交際。來訪者中包括女演員奧利維亞·王爾德(Olivia Wilde)、模特艾莉克·慧克(Alek Wek)、博主利安德拉·梅丁(Leandra Medine)和英國音樂人Birdy。

“I want my work to be accessible to people,” said Mr. Koons, dapper in his navy blue H&M suit. Mothers and daughters, college students and young professionals, he predicted, would be among those to pounce on his contribution to the retailer’s inventory: a $49.50 handbag with a six-inch reproduction of his monumental balloon dog. (The $58.4 million original is on view in a survey of the artist’s work at the Whitney Museum of American Art.)

“我想讓人們看到我的作品，”昆斯說。他身穿深藍色的H&M西服，看起來神采奕奕。他預測，母親和女兒、大學生和年輕的專業人士會撲向他爲該公司設計的產品：一款49.50美元的手袋，上面有他的不朽作品“氣球狗”的六英寸複製品（原作價值5840萬美元，正在惠特尼美國藝術博物館的一場研究昆斯作品的展覽中展出）。

That limited-edition bag, already priced from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars (for artist-signed pieces) on eBay, is but the latest in an outpouring of artist/Fashion collaborations to have filtered into the marketplace. In recent memory, these have included such high-profile partnerships as Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince, each with Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton; Raf Simons and Sterling Ruby at Dior; and Riccardo Tisci and Marina Abramovic at Givenchy.

那款限量版手袋在eBay上的價格已經由幾百美元飆升至幾千美元（藝術家簽名款）。它只是涌入市場的藝術家與時裝公司的合作產品中的最新一個。最近，村上隆和理查德·普林斯(Richard Prince)分別與馬克·雅可布(Marc Jacobs)爲LV高調合作；拉夫·西蒙斯(Raf Simons)和斯特林·魯比(Sterling Ruby)一起爲迪奧(Dior)做設計；裏卡多·提西(Riccardo Tisci)和瑪麗娜·阿布拉莫維奇(Marina Abramovic)一起爲紀梵希(Givenchy)做設計。

But in joining hands with H&M, Mr. Koons has lent this time-tested marketing gambit a democratic twist. No longer the exclusive province of the luxury arena, such artist/retail partnerships have now trickled downward, with the aim, it seems, of lending fast fashion a whiff of class and cultural clout.

但是昆斯與H&M的合作給這個久經考驗的營銷策略帶來了民主變革。藝術家與零售商的合作不再是奢侈品牌的獨享領域，現在它開始向下發展，似乎是想給快速時尚帶來一點經典和文化的感覺。

“These high street brands don’t really have a face we associate with the artistic director of a luxury brand like Vuitton,” said Mitchell Oakley Smith, the author, with Alison Kubler, of “Art/Fashion in the 21st Century.” “Perhaps this is a way of imbuing the mass brand with a personality and point of difference.”

“不像LV這樣的奢侈品牌，我們並不知道這些高街品牌的設計總監是誰，”《21世紀的藝術與時尚》(Art/Fashion in the 21st Century)的作者之一米切爾·奧克利·史密斯（Mitchell Oakley Smith，另一位作者是艾莉森·庫布勒[Alison Kubler]）說，“這也許是給大衆品牌注入個性和特色的一個方法。”

Earlier this year, whether to lift sales or consumer awareness, Uniqlo joined with the Museum of Modern Art to create a collection of T-shirts embellished with images of works by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Jackson Pollock, among others; Gap teamed with the Frieze Art Fair to sell tees printed with images by Richard Phillips, Alex Katz and Yoko Ono; and Junk Food, a Los Angeles apparel maker, licensed work by Mr. Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose iconic crown tag was stamped on black T-shirts sold at Urban Outfitters.

今年早些時候，不管是爲了促進銷售還是提高公司的知名度，優衣庫(Uniqlo)和現代藝術博物館(Museum of Modern Art)合作生產了一系列T恤，上面裝飾着安迪·沃霍爾(Andy Warhol)、基思·哈林(Keith Haring)和傑克遜·波洛克(Jackson Pollock)等人的作品圖像；Gap與弗里茲藝術博覽會(Frieze Art Fair)合作銷售印有理查德·菲利普斯(Richard Phillips)、亞歷克斯·卡茨(Alex Katz)和小野洋子的作品圖像的T恤；洛杉磯服裝製造商垃圾食品(Junk Food)得到了哈林和讓-米切爾·巴斯奎特(Jean-Michel Basquiat)的作品許可，巴斯奎特的標誌性皇冠標籤被印在黑色T恤上，在城市裝備店(Urban Outfitters)銷售。

“It was inevitable that the mass market would pick up on the idea of artist collaborations,” Ms. Kubler said, “but it is an interesting test of their relevance.” Luxury alliances like Vuitton and Mr. Murakami lift the stature of both artist and brand, “but in the mass market,” she added, “the message can be harder to get across.”

“大衆市場肯定會慢慢熟悉這種與藝術家合作的做法，”庫布勒說，“但它是個關於相關性的有趣測試。” 她補充說，像LV和村上隆這樣的合作既能提升藝術家的知名度，也能提高奢侈品牌的地位，“但是在大衆市場，這樣的訊息傳達起來更難”。

If such ventures have little immediate impact on a merchant’s bottom line, they can profit the artist immeasurably. A handful of years ago, Jeffrey Deitch, Mr. Koons’s former dealer and a friend, anticipated this phenomenon, telling The New York Times that such partnerships are “just one of the avenues available to the artist who wants to get his message to the public.”

雖然這樣的合作可能不會很快幫助服裝公司增加利潤，但是它們能給藝術家帶來不可估量的益處。幾年前，昆斯的朋友和前任代理人傑弗裏·戴奇(Jeffrey Deitch)預測了這種現象，他對《紐約時報》說這樣的合作“給那些想把自己的訊息傳遞給公衆的藝術家提供了一條途徑”。

The assumption, of course, is that the public knows the name. Or if, as in the case of Mr. Koons, “they do not know the man, they know the iconic things he has done,” said Daniel Kulle, the president for North American operations at H&M. “People are more well informed than they used to be.”

當然，前提是公衆知道這位藝術家。或者，如H&M的北美運營總監丹尼爾·庫勒(Daniel Kulle)所說，昆斯的情況是，“他們不知道這個人，但他們知道他設計的標誌性作品”，“人們對他的瞭解比以前更多了”。

Still, to an art-enamored public, the matter may be moot. “Even if an artist is unknown,” Mr. Smith said, “in that commercial context, who he is and what he does matters less than just that he is an artist.”

不過，對傾慕藝術的公衆來說，這個問題也許無關緊要。“即使這位藝術家默默無聞，”史密斯說，“在那個商業環境中，他是誰、他做什麼不重要，重要的是他是藝術家。”