The exquisite miniatures came, over the previous sixty years, from the brush of the foremost 20th century artists-suffice it to mention Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Wassily Kandinsky and Salvador Dali.
The world owed an initial venture at an original wine label to Jean Carlus. The Cubist poster painter placed in it a merry manikin, orange-colored and triangular-shaped.
Baron Filippe de Rothschild made a peculiar celebration of victory in World War II. In 1945, he ordered young artist Filippe Julian a millesimal label crowned with V, victory sign.
Since then, artists have been permanent contributors to the Rothschild wine project. The salary is always the same-ten wine crates, a dozen bottles in each.
The Rothschilds stayed for many years unaware of a dogged hunt for their labels in the whole wide world. Many connoisseurs place the pretty items on the walls of their homes.
Baroness Filippine's itinerant show previously visited London, Berlin, Brussels, Canada, Japan and China, and several American cities. It appeared in Russia in honor of Ilya Kabakov, renowned Conceptualist artist, who was coaxed into making a label for the 2002 vintage. Named "Window", his composition portrays angels, whose white wings frame an endless tunnel that symbolizes progress toward the light.
The Kabakov label, in a way, echoes Marc Chagall's. It figures a child who looks spellbound at angels as mommy gives him a gorgeous bunch of grapes. Lost in reverie, the little boy pays no attention to a blackbird pecking at the amber-colored berries.
