2024 has been a big year for the Iron Ladies of Champagne, the pioneering women of the 18th and early 19th centuries who created Champagne as we know it today.
In July we were treated to a sensual art-house take on riddling and rosé Champagne pioneer Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin in Widow Clicquot.
September brings us from the indie-film arthouse to one of New York’s premier annual fine art fairs—The Armory Show—and the 150th anniversary celebration of the modern-day taste of Champagne, aka the brut style, as introduced by Madame Louise Pommery in 1874.
Champagne Pommery served once again as an official Armory Show Fair Partner, hosting the Pommery Lounge and awarding the art fair’s Pommery Prize of $25,000 to one of the fair’s presenting artists. But Champagne Pommery co-owner Nathalie Vranken and her daughter Pauline, CEO of Vranken Pommery America, had a performance piece of their own at the 2024 Armory Show.
In celebration of 150 years of brut Champagne, Pommery has created a special-edition cuvée Apanage 1874, and it arrived at the Armory Show via sailboat, direct from Champagne, recreating the same voyage made when the house’s records indicate it shipped its first bottles of Pommery Champagne to the United States aboard the Foudre de Gale, 120 years ago.
This year’s Pommery Prize was awarded to artist Anina Major for her piece The Landing, inspired by her migration story from the Bahamas to the United States. Her installation included wooden structures recalling Caribbean market stalls and included Major’s straw-plaited ceramics using methods learned from her grandmother, herself a market vendor.
“It is truly an honor to receive this award!” Majors told the Vrankens. “It is a testament to the power of creativity and its ability to manifest from the most unexpected places."
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