When Peter Prescott, long-term and ongoing business partner of Sir Terence Conran, first contacted us with the view to work together on a print edition for their Fleet Street wine bar and bistro Lutyens, I was very excited.
We met at Lutyens, which is in a fantastic location (I walked from Clerkenwell, but you could also easily walk from Covent Garden). I’ll be honest and say I hadn’t been there before, and only knew of their other London establishments The Boundary and The Albion in Shoreditch, but discovered that it’s a great venue that mixes class and sophistication with an unintimidating friendly atmosphere. Peter’s idea was that together we helped to create one limited edition print (or in this case a triptych) per year by a different artist every time, which was associated with Lutyens in some way. Over a number of years we will have then built up a permanent collection that we hope will become part of the venue’s identity and something visitors will pass by to see especially. So after agreeing it was a great concept, we started to talk artists, and after presenting him with some suggestions it wasn’t long before Peter selected
Lucie Bennett as someone he thought the idea would work well with. Sir Terence agreed, so we brought her in and before long, after a few more meetings, Lucie had some suggested imagery and the result is the fantastic Burgundy Nude series we’re launching online today.
Continuing to focus on the female form, instead of taking Lutyens itself as a starting point (as originally suggested), Lucie looked beyond the bricks and mortar and thought it would be a great idea to explore the subject of wine as inspiration for the new pieces. It was soon decided that we’d work on a ‘burgundy’ theme, which provided not only a colour palette for Lucie to work with, but also the wine association and ultimately the titles of the works, which are French girls names, one of them ‘Marianne’ after France herself.
Romy,
Delphine and
Marianne are sexy and savvy; my favourite, Delphine who sits in the centre position, has a clear attitude as she struts on by, her shoulders swinging and her head turned as if glaring out from the surface of the paper (although her eyes are covered, as they are in all three of the works).
Each in a limited edition of just 45, the prints can be bought individually or as a set of three. They will be permanently on show at Lutyens until May 2014, and for the next month will be accompanied by three original paintings by Lucie:
Nico and
Mireille, which are new this month, and the large-scale
Silver Jungle from her 2011 series.
Lutyens wine bar and bistro is at 85 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1AE and is open from Monday to Friday, midday to 11.30pm if you want to pop in and have a look.
Alternatively you can view and buy the works online
here.