Bloomingdale's Gets a Piece of the Contemporary Art Action

Some people are up in arms because LAMoCA is letting Louis Vuitton set up shop in the middle of the museum's Takashi Murakami retrospective this fall. Here's an inversion of those circumstances: Bloomingdale's is appointing its flagship on 59th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan with art and artist-inspired installations. It's part of a collaboration, "Artrageous," with the New Museum of Contemporary Art that launched earlier this week and continues past the opening of the museum's new building on the Bowery and into the holiday shopping season.

There are a dizzying number of elements to the campaign. In addition to showcasing art alongside fashion in its windows, the department store has created Piet Mondrian-inspired banners and light sculptures reminiscent of Dan Flavin for the project; it's printed an 88-page catalog that features cities where contemporary art is flourishing; and it's set up a "pop-up" shop on the second floor to sell merchandise from the New Museum's store. (The shop is open until November 6th, and 90% of the sales go to the museum.)

We don't know much about any of the artists participating in the window installations — except Stephen Posen, and then only because he's Zac Posen's father — but maybe Bloomingdale's is just on the cutting edge?

Photos of the installations to come.