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In the history of art there are many examples of successful collaboration between well-known companies and artists - Alphonse Mucha and the Georges Fouquet Jewelry House, Salvador Dali and Schiaparelli, Takashi Murakami and FaZe Clan, Dutch abstract artist Piet Mondrian and Hermès. Such artists as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky and many others collaborated with porcelain factories.
These days, corporations such as IKEA and DHL are actively collaborating with artists. IKEA experimented with products with Virgil Abloh. The DHL courier service showed a sample of its employee's T-shirt, made by the fashion brand Vetements. T-shirts quickly sold out, and merch found a second life. It is worth mentioning that sometimes the main product becomes merch at the same time, and vice versa, Art-merch products can become the main product of the Company. This is often seen in collaborations between brands and artists, when the line between a joint product, a main product and a limited collection is practically erased.
Today, the collaboration of Authors (artists, designers, craftsmen, etc.) with Companies and well-known brands is hardly surprising. Art-merch production has become available to many Art Owners and Authors. Collections of Art-merch objects attract the attention of different target groups of buyers, and thus increase the total number of Art fans. Art-merch objects help the recognition of original works in the art market, and thus promote sales of original art works. Art-Merch may include design items, samples of clothing and textiles, decorative dishes, accessories, souvenirs, and other items. But one circumstance remains unchanged - Art merch is always based on the author's work of art of a certain artist.
Among the successful projects in the field of Art-merch is the collaboration between the artist Rinat Kuramshin and EAF CLUB (Great Britain). As part of this cooperation, EAF CLUB produced a collection of Art-merch objects with images of Rinat Kuramshin's paintings for the VALOIS FEST International Project.