News - Xu Lei designs Château Mouton Rothschild's label

Xu Lei, the art director of the Today Art Museum, has designed a lovely label for Bordeaux wine producer Château Mouton Rothschild, a ram (Rothschild’s emblem) perched on a rock in an overall blue decor. Since 1945 the winemaker has invited each year one artist to design a label, but Xu Lei is only the second Chinese artist invited to do so after Gu Gan in 1996. Needless to say, the move is a shrewd one, given the importance of the Chinese consumer for wine merchant. Still he’s a bit of an odd choice, given the previous luminary line up which includes Joan Miro, Chagall, Dali, Kandinsky, Warhol and Picasso. When I think of top Chinese contemporary artists, his name certainly isn’t there yet. That said, last year’s “artist” was the Prince of Wales…