Art of the A9 A canvas for your music
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of one of our most iconic designs, the Beosound A9, we have invited some of the world’s most exciting visual artists to contribute to a unique project. The Art of the A9 sees the distinctive circular canvas reinterpreted via a series of highly limited edition artworks, available in small batches local to each of the specially commissioned artists involved.
As good as it sounds
The A9 doesn’t look like any other speaker. That’s the point. We understand that the days of hiding your stereo are over. We designed Beosound A9 like a beautiful piece of furniture — with carefully selected materials and uncompromising attention to detail. The result is an iconic piece of music design you can put on display anywhere. And we mean anywhere. Our built-in room adaptation technology adjusts the sound perfectly to its surroundings, so you can enjoy our Signature Sound wherever you position your A9, delivered via a powerful 1500-watt digital amplifier system.
Jean Jullien
Jean Jullien is a French graphic artist living and working in Paris. Originally from Nantes, he graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2008 and the Royal College of Art in 2010. Jullien’s creative output ranges from illustration, photography and video to costumes, installations, books, posters, clothing — even skateboards. He has shown work in museums and galleries around the world, and his illustrations have appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, National Geographic and more. His first retrospective monograph was published by Phaidon Press in 2022.
A multi-disciplinary artistManon Cezaro
For her Art of the A9 design, Cezaro developed a new technique. ‘I used 3D shapes that I created in plaster – and then scanned them to create new images. So although the composition is digital, I had created the forms with my hands first. It is the first time I have made a composition like this, starting with a physical object. It is the beginning of a new way of working for me.’ Her design for the A9 has been created to work in conjunction with that of Alexis Jamet. ‘It’s a continuity of what we do usually, our styles often coincide even when we don’t work together on the same image.’
Graphic designer and artist from ParisAlexis Jamet
Alexis Jamet utilizes a diverse range of styles, combining craft techniques and digital technologies to produce work that can include anything from brand identities to animated short films. He often uses the shapes he observes in nature as the source material for his abstract digital forms. Jamet often uses digital airbrush tools, blurring the sharp lines of nature to produce more interesting effects whilst exploring the boundary between the figurative and the abstract. ‘It provides more space for imagination and interpretation,’ he explains.
From fashion to artJohanna Dumet
Living and working in Berlin, Johanna Dumet is a self-taught painter with a background in fashion design. Her use of bold colours coupled with an ironic sense of humour is underlined by a strong understanding of the traditions of painting.For the Bang & Olufsen Art of the A9 project, she was inspired by the nature of Denmark, especially flowers, lots of small and wild summer flowers that often die once picked up. This specific flower bouquet is called Forever for You because this one will never die. "It is my birthday present to Bang & Olufsen."
Architect and interior designer Miriam Alía
A Spanish architect and interior designer Miriam Alía mixes unique and irreverent pieces in her work, playing with geometry, surface textures and colour. She has created a unique and easily identifiable universe through her designs, which are defined by a unique mixture of 1950s styling, futurism, Miami Modern, pastel colours, sequins, mirrors, paper, glass and textiles. She was named among the ‘best 100 Creators’ by the influential AD magazine.
South African-Portuguese visual artist Vanessa Teodoro
Vanessa Teodoro has an academic and professional background in graphic design and advertising, which informs her street-art inspired work. Based in Lisbon, she has worked exclusively in illustration and fine art since 2009, collaborating with international brands including Louis Vuitton and Jaguar.
Seoul-based artist GRAFFLEX
Seoul-based GRAFFLEX is an artist, best known for his paintings, public artworks, sculptures, and art toys. He creates his own icons through various objects and situations around him He combines graphics and painting in his designs, developing his own style that draws on the influences and imagery of his childhood, exploring the impact of mass media on the modern world. His bold lines reveal the influence of cartoon and animation on his work, while he also draws from hip hop and street culture. Reinterpreting familiar objects, logos and characters in a distinctively upbeat, brightly-coloured fashion and working in mixed media in both 3D and 2D, GRAFFLEX describes his artwork in his own unique style.
Bringing the rhythm of jazz to the canvas
To celebrate the anniversary of Beosound A9, Bang & Olufsen collaborated with vinyl lifestyle brand 12on12 to create a series of covers featuring a work by contemporary fine artist Ferrari Sheppard.
Legendary Grammy Award winning producer Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean, a strategic stakeholder in 12on12 and loyal Bang & Olufsen collector, selected the artist’s 2021 fine art portrait ‘My Name is Sarah’ to be featured on the limited edition A9 speakers.
For more information on the vinyl and hand-finished pieces, visit 12on12’s website.
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