BackFrom the outset, the Guerlain family viewed beauty as an art form. Their salons, once frequented by writers and intellectuals, became places of cultural dialogue. In the 20th century, figures such as Diego Giacometti, Jean-Michel Frank and Christian Bérard contributed to decorating the Maison at 68 Champs-Élysées, which remains the brand’s beating heart. Every facet of the House, from bottle design to boutique architecture, reflects this continuum of artistic exploration.
The Bee Bottle of 1853, created for the Empress Eugénie, encapsulated the union of art and fragrance, while later collaborations with Baccarat, Maison Matisse, Lee Ufan and Jeanne Briand reaffirmed Guerlain’s commitment to artistry in form. The Guerlains were firm believers that perfume, like art, transcends function: it stirs emotion, preserves memory and expresses vision.
View of the exhibition at Guerlain's Flagship store, © Maxime Vm
This philosophy culminated in 1925 when Pierre Guerlain ensured that fragrance was officially recognised as part of the Decorative Arts during the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris. It was an audacious declaration that scent, too, was an artform.
Guerlain’s artistic lineage has not faded with time but grown. In 2006, the Maison launched an annual contemporary art exhibition at its Champs-Élysées flagship, in partnership first with FIAC and later with Art Basel Paris. These exhibitions, now a celebrated tradition, have presented more than 340 artists, offering free public access to works that challenge, inspire and provoke.
Artwork by Niki de Saint Phalle. View of the exhibition ‘En plein cœur, un siècle d’amour sans filtre’ © Maxime Vm
Curated since 2023 by Hervé Mikaeloff, the exhibitions explore values central to Guerlain’s identity: beauty, nature, emotion and modernity. They have featured masters such as Louise Bourgeois, Sophie Calle and Anselm Kiefer alongside a new generation of creators including Otobong Nkanga, Claire Tabouret and Mimosa Echard. Each year’s theme converses subtly with a Guerlain creation, forging a living dialogue between olfactory art and the visual arts.
Beyond exhibitions, Guerlain’s cultural initiatives embrace responsibility and reflection. The Lee Ufan Arles × Guerlain Art & Environment Prize, founded in 2023, exemplifies this commitment by rewarding artists who explore the relationship between humanity and nature.
As Guerlain’s CEO Gabrielle Saint-Genis has said, “Artists have a major role in shaping the world of tomorrow, particularly by reflecting on our interactions with nature and the living world.”
Ren Hang, Untitled, 2014 © Ren Hang / Paris-B
In 2025, Guerlain celebrates one of its greatest icons, Shalimar, marking a hundred years since Jacques Guerlain created the fragrance inspired by the love story of Emperor Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. The scent, whose name means “abode of love,” has long been synonymous with passion, memory and sensuality.
To honour this centenary, Guerlain presents En plein cœur, an ambitious modern and contemporary art exhibition hosted at 68 Avenue des Champs-Élysées open till16th November 2025.
The show, curated by Hervé Mikaeloff and Benoît Baume, brings together more than thirty artists, from Pablo Picasso and David Hockney to Niki de Saint Phalle and Charlotte Abramow, in an intergenerational exploration of love in all its forms.
Back photograph: RongRong&inri, Untitled, 2008 No.25 © RongRong&inri / Three Shadows Photography Art Centre / Collection privée
Across three floors, En plein cœur traces a century of love, its transformations, resistances and freedoms, through painting, photography, sculpture, video and performance. Works by Louise Bourgeois, Robert Mapplethorpe and Marina Abramović dialogue with those of emerging voices like Hui Choi, Sofiya Loriashvili and Louis Verret.
Organised around three thematic chapters, “Love in Bursts,” “Love in Resistance,” and “Body to Heart”, the exhibition journeys through intimacy, desire and emotional liberation.
Some works were created especially for Guerlain: Damien Moulierac’s Fontaine de l’amour, an organic structure of intertwined hearts; Marion Flament’s Adorations, ceramic rosaries shaped around symbols of love and the Maison’s bee emblem; and Omar Ba’s Orbite, celebrating the passage from solitude to union.
John Giorno, EVERYONE IS A COMPLETE DISAPPOINTMENT, 2018 ©️ Giorno Poetry Systems - Courtesy of Giorno Poetry Systems and Almine Rech and a portrait of Louise Bourgeois by Robert Robert Mapplethorpe, 1982
An olfactory dimension, devised by Guerlain perfumer Delphine Jelk with Magique Studio, enriches the experience. Collaborating with participating artists, she translated visual artworks into fragrances, a sensory dialogue where scent becomes another form of language.
What distinguishes Guerlain’s relationship with art is continuity. The Maison’s exhibitions and prizes are not marketing events but the natural evolution of a family tradition grounded in curiosity, respect and cultural stewardship. Its partnerships with major institutions like the Pompidou Centre, Palais de Tokyo, Château de Versailles, Mori Art Museum and UNESCO, attest to a global vision that unites French heritage with universal creativity.
Susan Hefuna, ABZ3NCE, 2011, Courtesy Rosa Hoffman Gallery ©André Morin Courtesy Collection Daniel et Florence Guerlain
Susan Hefuna, Forever, 2011, Courtesy Rosa Hoffman Gallery © André Morin Courtesy Collection Daniel et Florence Guerlain
Even as Guerlain evolves within the LVMH group, its artistic vocation remains intact: to craft beauty with conscience. The bee, its emblem since 1853, symbolises not only aesthetic grace but ecological responsibility, mirrored in initiatives such as the Guerlain for Bees Conservation Programme and the Women for Bees partnership with UNESCO.
Nearly two centuries after Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain opened his first boutique, the Maison still moves between art and emotion, shaping each creation as an expression of its enduring curiosity and spirit of beauty.
