Reviews

Wine and modern painting
«Art in Wine» №3 September-November 2009

I am looking at the picture.

I know that this is a wine bunch, but half a dozen of faces, grinning and indifferent, content and sad, are staring at me instead of tight, compact spherical berries. Their shapes are loose and sharp, and only a few nervous lines linking them in a bunch remind that these anthropoid circles are actually grapes. Black drawing on a white background intensifies the surreal effect. Those familiar with modern Spanish art will perhaps easily recognise that the work belongs to talented Antonio Saura. Faces are a common topic in his art, and his technique is known to lie somewhere between caricature and expressionism.

Saura’s artwork now belongs to Enate winery that keeps a sizeable collection of paintings and pictures. Having recently come of age, this estate was conceptually planned to combine winemaking and art from the very beginning. An impressive collection of modern Spanish paintings is but a tip of an iceberg in this inspiring winery. Some artworks were transformed into labels, having made Enate bottles great ambassadors of modern Spanish art around the world.

Enate is not the only example of successful synergy between winemaking and fine art. The Rothschild museum of wine in their splendid Chateau Mouton Rothschild in Bordeaux, fantastic wine attraction Loisium in Austria, a unique collection of modern art in Hess Collection Winery in California confirm that we perceive fine art and fine wine as closely related, despite obvious differences between processes and end products.

This link is especially curious once we take into account that wine is essentially an agricultural product which lies outside the realm of fine practices with which we associate painting and other creative endeavours. Wine is born from a vine grown on a plot of land. It might involve an element of natural mystery, but wine is not commonly viewed as a consequence of creative, often mystical inspiration such as needed for painting a great canvas.

Today we easily accept an idea that wine can be beautiful, but several centuries ago philosophers dared not to elevate it to the rank of aesthetically pleasing things, as wine exercises influence on ‘lower’ senses of smell and taste, as opposed to ‘higher’ senses of sight and hearing needed for the appreciation of beauty in painting, literature, music or nature. Fortunately, modern philosophical thought doesn’t classify our senses as high and low anymore.

Until recently fine art, like fine wine, could be enjoyed only by the elite of the society. Isn’t it a real reason why both were treated as something exclusive and jealously guarded? Modern democratic values greatly changed artists’ attitudes to their work, as well as our views on art and wine. Once the king of pop art Andy Warhol opened a bottle of sparkling Ferrari and was much impressed with the wine. On the spot, he expressed his gratitude by drawing a picture, only that he used a dinner plate instead of conventional paper. Was this a work of art? Certainly, as Warhol had a subject and he expressed his emotions. The question about what means he used — paper or glass, canvas or a dinner plate — is secondary.

What about wine? Can it just like a painting serve as an artistic reflection of the world or convey winemaker’s inner feelings? A wine purist will categorically deny such a possibility. He will say that a true wine must convey only the uniqueness of the place where it was born, and a winemaker must be nothing but a supporting link in the process of converting grapes into noble beverage. But there is at least one winery where barrels with young wine serve as a colour palette, and the tasting room is combined with an art studio.

Californian winery Artiste produces a special range called Impressionist Cuvees. As the name suggests, wines are made in the impressionist style. Inspiration for them comes from paintings by modern impressionist artists and classical European vineyards. Everything can be mixed in Impressionist Cuvees — different grapes, regions and even vintages, in order to get absolutely unique wine “themes”. Flower composition Les Fleurs by Daniel Bayless inspired an Artiste winemaker to create a perfumed, floral white wine from Gewurztraminer, to be associated with a vineyard in Alsace.

Receiving influence from the artistic world is not a one-way process. At times modern wine culture becomes a source of great inspiration for men of art. Daria Markelova and Valery Mironov together with other Russian artists recently stayed in Austria. Magical Wachau, equally well known for its natural beauty and superb winemaking, was chosen as the place for their art experiments. “We wanted to embrace the unembraceable, we wanted to draw everything and at once. We were dazzled, and our pencils were dropping from our hands. We were overwhelmed by emotions and impressions, we were captured by the spirit of creativity which was transformed into images on paper. We couldn’t stop. Even back in our cosy little hotel after a day’s work, everyone started to draw or paint again”, remembers Daria.

The project was designed as a creative symbiosis of gustatory and artistic perception of wine. In her Austrian works on canvas and silk, Daria Markelova conveyed here closest associations with Wachau. A vine: “intricate twists, with every plant being unique... as nature is the greatest creator”. Bottle glass: “I’ve been collecting unusual wine bottles for a long time. I love glass. It is beautiful, amazingly strong yet fragile”. Lizards: “I liked these flexible and agile creatures before. They were often featured in my works. I now learnt that lizard is a symbol of the most prestigious category of Wachau wines”.

Valery Mironov whose works are difficult to classify within one style, was particularly impressed with vines. “The aesthetic form of a vine can be appreciated as much as that of Japanese bonsai. I wanted to depict various shapes of vines in my works. Each has own rhythm, development and individuality. A vine can be compared to a man in such key notions as origin, care and destiny. Having submerged myself in the captivating search of a form, I felt close to a meditation that can also be experienced when contemplating a finished canvas”.

Valery finds many common things between the artistic and wine worlds. “Art, like wine, has own history, masters, connoisseurs and masterpieces. Works by great masters can be contemplated almost endlessly. It is also a pleasure to spend time enjoying aromas and flavours of a good wine. Both can make one slightly dizzy. The work of an artist can be compared to that of a winemaker in terms of research for an appropriate colour and impeccable form”, he says.

Re-thinking one’s attitudes to wine is a natural consequence of such an experience. “My attitude towards wine changed dramatically after I was introduced to the amazing and complex world of aromas of flavours. I got invaluable experience and new exciting knowledge”, Daria Markelova confirms. “A good wine is akin to a good artwork”, she adds, and this is the greatest compliment to hear from an artist.