Past Exhibitions
Mouton Rothschild Paintings for the Labels
6 November – 18 December 1987
This exhibition featured approximately 40 works created by celebrated contemporary artists for labels of the Mouton Rothschild wines. Artists such as Braque, Chagall, Cocteau, Dali, Kandinski, Miro, Motherwell, Picasso, Steinberg and Warhol were represented in the exhibition, which was comprised of original pieces of art commissioned annually since 1945 by the Baron Philippe de Rothschild to be reproduced on the labels of his family's famous Mouton Rothschild vintages. The Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, daughter of the Baron and co-owner with him of the Mouton Rothschild vineyard, organized the show and visited Pittsburgh to celebrate the opening at the Institute.
In the exhibition the original pieces of art were juxtaposed with the resulting labels and, in many cases, with the artists' variations on the designs. The lively and unusual paintings reflected the artists' freedom to paint whatever the theme of wine inspired—often the grape, the vine or the ram (the symbol of Mouton Rothschild). The exhibition toured art museums and galleries in the United States under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES). A catalogue, published by Little, Brown and Company in 1983, accompanied the exhibition as well as posters and postcards produced by SITES.
