Joan Mitchell Foundation Sues Disobedient Fashion House Louis Vuitton

After the fashion house Hermes won a lawsuit against an artist who reinterpreted the famous Birkin bags without their permission and then exhibited (and sold) them as NFTs, art lovers have now served a lawsuit to the competing fashion house Louis Vuitton.

Specifically, the Joan Mitchell Foundation (JMF) has reportedly filed a lawsuit against the fashion brand for using Joan Mitchell’s artworks in their campaign without permission. To add to the irony, in the advertisement, actress Léa Seydoux carries the Capucine handbag in front of the painting ‘La Grande Vallée XIV’, which is exhibited at the ‘Monet – Mitchell’ exhibition organized by the private Louis Vuitton Foundation.

As reported by ARTnews, the JMF has requested that Louis Vuitton immediately withdraw the campaign and issue an apology, as it is ‘extremely important for them to understand that this is not what was agreed upon’.

Request Denied

– My question is how this even happened. Honestly, I do not understand why they did this. I really do not understand – said Christa Blatchford, the executive director of the Joan Mitchell Foundation.

She confirmed that LV contacted them several times during December, and each time they rejected the request to use the works of artist Joan Mitchell in commercial campaigns, emphasizing that they may only be used for educational and artistic purposes.

Despite this clear stance, the fashion house decided to proceed as they wished. Blatchford expressed regret that due to this case, they will reconsider future collaborations with commercial partners, as the foundation’s mission is to support living artists, while Louis Vuitton is using Joan Mitchell’s artworks to sell a luxury handbag worth $10,500.

The ‘Monet-Mitchell’ exhibition organized by the Louis Vuitton Foundation runs from the end of October until February 27, and their goal was to create a dialogue between the works of Impressionist Claude Monet and one of the initiators of the abstract expressionism movement, Joan Mitchell.