Absolut Art Collection

The Museum of Spirits is proud to present Face it! the first major presentation of the famous Absolut Art Collection including works by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, Ed Ruscha, Annie Leibovitz and other international icons, together with Swedish artists such as Linn Fernström, Dan Wolgers and Ola Billgren.

FACE IT!

The Museum of Spirits is proud to present Face it! the first major presentation of the famous Absolut Art Collection including works by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, Ed Ruscha, Annie Leibovitz and other international icons, together with Swedish artists such as Linn Fernström, Dan Wolgers and Ola Billgren.

The title of the exhibition Face It! is intended as an invitation to visitors to form their own opinions about an art collection about which there are many preconceived ideas. Many people have seen a handful of the artworks in the media, but few people have seen the broad range of the collection in real life.

Face it! is the first major retrospective exhibition of works from the Absolut Art Collection, and can be seen as a cross-section of the art world of the 1980s and 1990s; an era defined by the glitterballs at studio 54 i New York, the first victims of the AIDS epidemic, the fall of the Berlin wall and the birth of the internet age.

Face it! will be open to the public until 1.9 2013. The exhibition consists of 69 of the total 850 artworks that were commisioned by Absolut Vodka between 1986–2004.

Visit Absolut Art Collections own website, click here.

Please note: images of the artworks above are cropped.

ABOUT THE ABSOLUT ART COLLECTION

There are diverging opinions as to how the work by Andy Warhol was commissioned. One version of the story was that Warhol voluntarily proposed the idea to Michel Roux at Carillon Importers (who represented Absolut in the USA at that time) over dinner: “I love the bottle. I want to do something with this.”

Michel Roux was a regular fixture in the New York nightlife in the 1980s and mixed with New York’s jet set and trendsetters, which is how he first met Andy Warhol. A Swedish entrepreneur named Titti Wachtmeister was also active in New York at this time and it has been claimed that it was she who suggested the idea to Andy Warhol of a work of art depicting the Absolut bottle. This story also seems credible, as Wachtmeister and Warhol were good friends.

Warhol recommended a number of other artists for future commissions. The ones we know with certainty received commissions from Absolut because of Andy Warhol, were Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf. These two artists belonged to a younger generation of underground artists in New York. Both Scharf and Haring worked and mixed with hip-hop artists, pop and rock musicians, graffiti artists and were active in New York’s club scene. Their art was colourful, celebratory, irreverent, and crossed the boundaries between high and low, commercial and underground.

The Absolut art baton passed from Andy Warhol, to Keith Haring to Kenny Scharf. After that, it is less clear how the artistic commissions from Absolut vodka came about.

In the mid-1990s Absolut lifted its gaze from the American market and began making serious plans to create a European art collection of rank. Absolut’s previous strategy had been to present works of art in an advertising framework. Although they continued to present works of art in advertising campaigns, Absolut’s artistic collaborations from the mid-1990s onwards were marked by a completely different respect and understanding for art on its own terms. This resulted in collaborations with well-respected contemporary artists of high status and many of the most striking works of art in the collection were commissioned at this time.

After many years in Paris and New York, the entire collection is now gathered together in Sweden in the care of the Museum of Spirits where the works will have their own dedicated exhibition space and will become the basis for an ongoing series of unique curated exhibitions that will change several times per year. The collection includes works by prominent Swedish artists such as Linn Fernström and Dan Wolgers.

Take a look around our collection storage. Click here.