Do not miss our latest addition: Michel Roudnitska on "art in perfumery" (for the French translation below click here)

We have the aim to discuss the world of perfume and art as broad as possible, from a multitude of angles. We want to know how perfumers from a multitude of backgrounds address art in perfumery. What do other artists from other fields think? And we would like to know more on the constraints and enablers on art in perfumery.  Therefore, we ask perfumers and stakeholders a simple question:

"What constitutes art in perfumery for you and how do you envision this in the reality of the fragrance industry?"

Their answers are amazing and enlightening.

The following answers are the starting point of a growing and permanent collection.  We invite you to follow up and discuss.

Video chats on art in perfumery: Enjoy our video chats, uploaded on the blog.

Marika Vecciattini from Bergamotto e Benzoino on art in perfumery

James Heeley on art in perfumery

Karen Dubins from Sniffaplooza

Grant Osborne from Basenotes.net

List of received printed contributions:

Michel Roudnitska, perfumer and artist, France.

Steven Broadhurst, creative director TOMMI SOONI, Australia

Jean Claude Ellena,
perfumer, France, created fragrances for several major perfume houses,  Hermès' exclusive in-house perfumer since 2004.

Michael Edwards, author of several books, among them "Fragrances of the World", FIFI award winner and perfume expert for the experts

Francois Duquesne, Director General of Maesa Creative Beauty Solutions, former president of l'Artisan Parfumeur.

Liz Zorn, Perfumer, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Mandy Aftel, Perfumer, San Francisco, USA
Dawn Spencer-Hurwitz, Perfumer, Bolder, USA
Vero Kern, Perfumer, Zurich Switzerland
Neil Morris, Perfumer, Boston USA
Mona di Orio, Perfumer, France
Antonio Alessandria, Perfumer, Catania Italy
Ineke Rühland, Perfumer, San Francisco USA

Upcoming replies:  Ayala Sender, Michel Roudnitska and many more...

Question: "What constitutes art in perfumery for you and how do you envision this in the reality of the fragrance industry?"

Michel Roudnitska (for the French original click here):

Art is the nurture of the soul.

If the material goods are the nurture of the body, the artistic creations and the deep emotions they provoke feed the most spiritual part of our being.
As a symphony, a painted masterpiece or a poem, a perfume can lead us into inner delighted states.

It happened to me, as to other participants, during our sensorial awakening workshops, some extraordinary ecstatic states just smelling a fragrance for a while in meditation.
During my creation process it’s this delicious inner shivering that I feel in all my being which shows me that I am in the right direction. If, to follow the excessive demands of a marketing manager, I lose the contact with this feeling, it’s then very difficult to get to an authentic work.

In order to become a work of art, a perfume must therefore fulfill some conditions:
    - To be the expression of the authentic inner truth of the creator,
    - To have an original, recognizable, harmonious and well built “olfactory shape”,
    - to be composed with quality raw materials (natural or synthetics),
    - To respect the necessary time for this elaboration (from 1 to 2 years or more)
    - To provide to the user a “disinterested, contemplative satisfaction, indifferent to the existence of the object” (Definition of “Beauty” by Kant).

Is this compatible with the industrial and global approach of the contemporary perfumery?
Quite often not, especially with mass market brands!
The market logic among commercial and financial managers privileges the consensual aspect of the product instead of its original quality (especially with panel tests).
An artistic creation is not consensual by intention but rather by the unpredictable result of a magic conjunction between the individual inspiration of a visionary creator and the public which will progressively come to meet him (and not the reverse).
Paradoxically, it’s often when you are deeply personal and unique in your expression that you can reach the universal.

It’s only the brand managers (mostly among “niche” brands) that respect their perfume composers in this approach that may allow the emergence of a true “author perfumery”.

Creating a work of art is an act of love and passion, needing the courage to take financial risks on an uncompromising engagement.
How many, nowadays, are still ready to make such a choice?

© Michel Roudnitska, July 2010,  www.art-et-parfum.com/

Français

L’art est la nourriture de l’âme.

Si les biens matériels sont une nourriture pour le corps, les créations artistiques et les émotions profondes qu’elles provoquent alimentent la partie la plus spirituelle de notre être.

Comme une symphonie, un tableau de maître ou un poème, un parfum peut nous conduire dans des états de ravissement intérieur. Il m’est arrivé, comme à d’autres participants, au cours de nos séminaires d’éveil sensoriel,  de connaître des moments d’extase rien qu’en respirant une fragrance pendant un temps prolongé en état de méditation.
Au cours du processus créatif c’est ce frémissement intérieur que je ressens dans tout mon être qui m’indique que je suis dans la bonne direction. Si, pour satisfaire les exigences excessives d’un commanditaire on se coupe de ce ressenti, il est alors très difficile de parvenir à une œuvre authentique.

Pour qu’un parfum puisse être une œuvre d’art, il doit donc remplir certaines conditions:
    -  Etre l’expression de la vérité intérieure authentique de son créateur,
    -  Avoir une « forme olfactive » originale, reconnaissable, harmonieuse et bien construite,
    -  Etre composé avec des matières premières de qualité (naturelles ou de synthèse),
    -  Respecter le temps nécessaire à cette élaboration (1 à 2 ans ou plus),
    -  Procurer à l’utilisateur une « satisfaction désintéressée, contemplative, indifférente à l’existence de l’objet . »  (Définition du « Beau » par Kant).

Cela est-il compatible avec l’approche industrielle et mondialiste de la parfumerie actuelle ?
Bien souvent non, surtout chez les marques à grande diffusion!
La logique du marché veut que ce soit l’aspect consensuel du produit  et non sa qualité originale qui détermine sa sélection par les décideurs du marketing et de la finance (tout particulièrement avec les panel tests).
Or une création artistique n’est pas consensuelle par intention mais plutôt par le résultat imprévisible d’une conjonction magique entre l’inspiration individuelle d’un créateur visionnaire et le public qui va progressivement venir à sa rencontre (et non l’inverse).

Paradoxalement, c’est souvent en étant profondément personnel et unique dans son expression que l’on peut atteindre l’universel.
Seuls les responsables de société (essentiellement quelques marques de niche) qui respectent leurs parfumeurs dans cette approche, permettent l’émergence d’une véritable « parfumerie d’auteur ».

Créer une œuvre d’art est un acte d’amour et de passion, nécessitant le courage de prendre des risques financiers sur un engagement sans compromis.

Combien, à l’heure actuelle, sont encore prêts à faire ce choix ?

© Michel Roudnitska, July 2010,  www.art-et-parfum.com/

Question: "What constitutes art in perfumery for you and how do you envision this in the reality of the fragrance industry?"

Steven Broadhurst:

An original creation striving to be a work of art must first and foremost touch the human spirit. Great art is rare. Those creative noses and art directors in the perfume industry driven by passion and a genuine love for great perfumes will continue to pursue the perfect creation, perfume art.
Restrictions abound. Budgets offered are often low, briefs are commonly mundane and ingredients restricted.

As frustrating as these restrictions are they will not put an end to creative perfume. We are human, we need beauty in our lives. We will find a way.
Beautiful perfumes are not a thing of the past and the perfume industry is not unique. Great art is not everywhere, it needs to be sought out.

Mass marketing has proved to be less thoughtful about art in perfume but then again our expectations are generally lower when we visit a perfume counter in a department store or perfume discounter. This is not to say art in perfume cannot be found in a department store, it can but you need a strong spirit and determination to find it. 

Today we find wonderful perfumes being created in unexpected corners of the world. This simply wasn't happening not too long ago.
Noses in many cultures are reflecting their surroundings and expressing unique life experiences through perfume creation. This can only be a good thing as the perfume world expands into an ever shrinking global community.

© Steven Broadhurst, Tommi Sooni July 2010,  www.tommisooni.com

Art of perfumery is about establishing an authentic emotional connection between the perfume and its user.

If there is no coherence between the scent, the story, the pack, the message, etc... there will be no emotional connection. There are great perspectives in our industry if we stay consistent, coherent and authentic.

The most important is not the obsession to create a succesfull perfume, it is to simply create a positive atmosphere with a true emotional connection and then success will follow.

© Francois Duquesne, 10 April 2010, contribution received April 8 2010

Contribution by Liz Zorn, Ohio, USA

Question: "What constitutes art in perfumery for you and how do you envision this in the reality of the fragrance industry?"

Liz Zorn:
To me “Art In Perfumery” is that moment or chain of events that turn an independent idea into a tangible reality. I came to perfumery slowly over many years. My ideas and perceptions were shaped primarily by my dual life as a painter and songwriter. I do not see where there is much of a difference between one art and another. A painting is a scent is a book is a song.

When it comes to the world, perception, fragrance industry etc... creativity is often weighed on a scale of art vs. commerce. For me as an independent perfumer I must find a place on this scale where I can exist without compromising my work. Within the perfume industry at large it seems that the tip goes firmly in the direction of commerce. The crunching of numbers trumps creativity, and there is this scramble to always be the next new thing. Just as one entity pulls itself to the top of the heap, another is right behind pulling them down and taking their place. There is nothing artistic about this. It is vulgar and ugly. Completely void of anything lasting and true.

At the same time the argument that art can not be commercial or mass produced doesn’t fly either, otherwise we would have to toss out all of the millions of reproductions: Records, Books, Prints, all have played a crucial role in the advancement of free expression around the world.
 I am very open about this, I can be listening to Muddy Waters, Mozart or Metallica, and experience it all as art. Is it any less “art” because millions of copies were made. Or should art be confined to the original master or manuscript.
A great perfume is no different, it can be mass produced, or hand bottled in limited supply.

Art, in its purest form is not elitist. It is of the people and for the people.

It is the graffiti on the side of a building, poppers and beat boys dancing in the street, a lone perfumer working in a makeshift studio, and a painter slinging color from a tin can. Whether we accept something as art or not is more about how we engage with it on a personal level. I would love to see the conversation as it applies to perfumery move in a more experiential direction. The dance is always a fine balance.

If there is a disconnect between art, people and intention, it is up to the art world to bridge that gap. Not in a lofty way, but in a way that allows everyone a place at the table. I have met many people over the years who feel that art is not for them. They feel that they do not understand it and they are often intimidated. Not so much by the art, but by the idea that is projected about art. That one must have a certain level of expertise to understand, discuss or enjoy it. I see people today scrambling to educate themselves on perfumery in this way. And perhaps this is a first. A first wave of something new and exciting. I surely hope so, because everyone should feel free to enjoy the beauty and complexity that is scent. Having an open discourse is a great way to make this happen.
© Liz Zorn, April 2010, Liz Zorn Perfumes LLC Soivohle Perfumes,
contribution received March 2010

Contribution by  Ineke Rühland, perfumer, San Francisco, USA

Question: "What constitutes art in perfumery for you and how do you envision this in the reality of the fragrance industry?"

Ineke Rühland:
I certainly believe that perfume can be artful, and in fact that it should be artful, but whether it qualifies as art very much depends on your definition of art.  Since perfume is a product that is sold to consumers, usually by big multinational corporations, the “art” tag becomes questionable.  Below are some criteria that contribute to or detract from the artfulness of perfumes.

Creativity by committee:  The more hands that touch a perfume during its development, the less artful the final product is likely to be.  I worked for many years for a fragrance supplier in Paris (Quest, now part of Givaudan), and observed first-hand the creative processes of our clients, the big fragrance manufacturers like Procter & Gamble, Estée Lauder, LVMH, etc.  Influencing the process are the brand licensor (some more than others), the various levels of product management of the licensee (VP marketing, brand director, brand manager, assistant brand manager), brand consultants, creative director of their ad agency (on the conceptual and visual side), packaging design agency, in-house packaging person, market research agency, in-house market researcher, fragrance evaluation consultant (sometimes) and the fragrance supplier.  Within just the fragrance supplier, fragrances are created by perfumers, of course, but are influenced and selected by category management, sales managers, evaluators, marketers and market researchers (again), all working for that supplier. Of course, artful perfumes can emerge sometimes, particularly if you have a strong-willed brand director on the manufacturing side and an obstinate perfumer on the supply side. It is just much less likely that perfumes will have originality and a clear artistic vision with so many disparate influences and points of view.

Market research:  Did I mention that fragrances usually encounter market research at least twice along the way (once by the supplier and once by the manufacturer).  Market research can be designed to allow for some creativity, but what usually wins the test is the smelled-before and familiar.  This is why there is such creative overlap in the market despite the thousands of products.  This is where independent perfumers can have an edge in terms of artfulness – they generally do not have the inclination or resources for market research.  Also, if you only need to please a very small contingent of perfume wearers, there is no interest in pleasing a maximum number of them with a banal fragrance.

Craft:  It does take some time to become a proficient perfumer, to hone the techniques needed to fulfill creative ideas.  They say it takes at least 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at anything.  That is definitely the case for perfumers.  Personally, I am still a work in progress.  And as an independent perfumer, I find that I have to spend the majority of my time on the other things involved in running a business:  sales, PR, packaging development, operations, accounting, finance, administration, etc.  Perfumers at supply houses definitely have more creation time, so an advantage here.

Original thought:  While all creative ideas mine previous ideas, it is important that new perfumes bring something original to the mix.  Artful perfumes require a thoughtful approach … slapdash, quick work won’t do it.  Also, much of the perfume industry tends to have a formulaic, paint-by-numbers approach to fragrance development.  This can particularly be seen in the usually lame advertising formula employed by the industry:  pay a big fee to a supermodel or celebrity, photograph semi-unclothed writhing in forced ecstasy and call it a day.   I always find such ads vaguely embarrassing for our industry, and I wish people would stop playing this artificial theme, even if it (apparently) works. On a separate note, using other art forms to bring more light or angles to perfume creation can definitely help to bring about originality and artfulness.

Innate talent:  While Thomas Edison famously said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, the same can be said for fragrance creation.  However that 1% inspiration is an innate talent that shines more brightly in the lucky few.

Copyright: Ineke Rühland, Feb. 2010

Experiencing a piece of art is a two-step process where sensory stimulation is followed by a complex elaboration involving our background, feelings and culture. But what amazes me is the rapid and unconscious way this happens. And when we speak about perfume, this short circuit is even more rapid and astonishing.
When a perfume is worn or is sprayed in a room you can’t avoid inhaling it. If the fragrance is just good or bad, it will cause a reaction that engenders only a sensorial appreciation. This is peculiar to functional perfumery: we say “good” or “bad”, and the experience is over.

On the contrary, an artistic perfume is not just a good or pretty smell, it is above all something that induces reactions giving rise to inner judgments and deeper thoughts. And, most importantly, it stimulates curiosity: when you come across a masterpiece, you are never tired to contemplate it. While keeping within the framework of its structure, it evolves because it is a living creature: you can always recognize it although it keeps changing, offering the opportunity of new thoughts and visions each time you stumble across it.

Obviously, if we accept that a given fragrance is a piece of art, this is because we acknowledge that it possesses both quality and originality, the latter being intended not as absolute novelty (this might be more and more difficult), but as the fact that an artistic perfume always tells its own story: a rose is always a rose, but each rose scent will interpret the flower in some individual way.
The evaluation of a piece of art proceeds on a path that starts from sensation and leads to emotion after passing by the desire to ask about the object, to speak about it and to hazard an interpretation. If we consider perfumes, unfortunately it is not so easy to speak about a smell, because in all languages, all over the world, the lexicon adopted to describe an odour is really poor. And probably this is one of the reasons why people are always timid when speaking about a scent. Many people express detailed descriptions of colors and shapes when they observe a sculpture or a picture, but the same people might be unable to describe their sensations when they smell a fragrance. And, perhaps, this is one of the root causes for the exclusion of perfumery from the sphere of art, along with the consideration that a perfume is a commodity that we commonly buy and use. But my question is: what makes people sad, happy, smiling, nostalgic or voluptuous more rapidly and unconsciously than a scent? And what moves them more than art?

So, making a simple syllogism: what is more artistic than a perfume?

Copyright Antonio Alessandria, March 2010

We continue our series with Mona di Orio, perfumer, Mona di Orio Parfumes, France

Question: "What constitutes art in perfumery for you and how do you envision this in the reality of the fragrance industry?"

Mona di Orio: Art in Perfumery is for me.... a creation in a total freedom, far away from the marketing diktats, an original shape, full of strength and refinement possessing the perfect and harmonious proportions and holding some beautiful raw materials selected by knowledge, experience and sensibility...
 
A fragrance which goes to interpellate yourself, to make you think, to make you feel...
 
Not a label, not a star, not a trend but a real new perfume...
 
The current fragrance industry pushes their massive launchings each year to the detriment of creativity and originality...
 
So the "niche perfumery" could be like a model.... Helping the consumer to recognize and to understand the expression of the "authentic creation".
 
In this way, the Niche Perfumery could precede, find out and inspire...
The economic realities are certainly really different, but in front of this lack of authenticity on the market it would be the best answer...
At least a first upright approach ?

Copyright Mona di Orio, March 2010

We continue our series with Neil Morris, perfumer, Neil Morris Fragrances, USA.

Question: "What constitutes art in perfumery for you and how do you envision this in the reality of the fragrance industry?"

Neil Morris: Art in perfumery, for me, depends on two things - Inspiration and the Passion to bring that inspiration to life through fragrance. Inspiration can come from anywhere and the most important aspect of inspiration is that it engenders excitement.

This can show itself in many ways - Sitting with a client who's thrilled about having a custom fragrance created for her, hearing a song that reminds me of a special time in my life, the scent of apple pie cooling in an October kitchen, a sunny stroll after a week of rain through the beautiful Kew Gardens in London, a summer walk in Rockport, Massachusetts where an unexpected scent reveals a hidden path filled with wisteria, a uniquely strong woman with an open heart...

All these and more have beckoned me to create a perfume.
 
I think we see a lot of the artistry in perfume in the niche and indie areas of the fragrance industry. There are many parallels between the fragrance and wine industries and I think the niche perfumeries are similar to the boutique vineyards. As a niche perfumer, I am not trying to appeal to the masses. I create fragrances from my heart and know that there are fragrance lovers out there who will appreciate the difference between a fragrance that is inspired and fired by passion and one that is developed using focus groups to determine which fragrance will have the widest appeal.

There was a time when a painter had to decide whether to make a living by having commercial appeal or die broke and possibly end up at the Louvre. Luckily for us niche perfumers things are not so black and white. There is a segment of the population that is not looking to follow the crowd when it comes to purchasing a fragrance. Instead they are looking for something unique that may even be a risk for them, but one that is based on artistry and emotion that brings fragrance to life.

Copyright Neil Morris, March 2010

We continue this series with Vero Kern, perfumer, vero.profumo, Switzerland

Question: "What constitutes art in perfumery for you and how do you envision this in the reality of the fragrance industry?"

Vero Kern: *Art is a cultural field of activity, in which human beings founded on their gifts; abilities and skills try hard to express their feelings and thoughts by a self-created work or by an action. If expressed by a work (object) to be perceived by other people after completion, this field of activity is called fine art(s); if expressed by an action bound to the presence of the artist's living body, it's called interpretative art(s).*

(Definition by Prof. Dr. Claus Tiedemann, University of Hamburg, Germany)


When it comes to ART, a cultural-philosophical thicket from which we find almost no way out suddenly surrounds us. And this field remains even more obscure when it comes to art in perfumery - which means judging and classifying scents, something invisible that would „flee“ any logical argument.

For many years I did and I still do work with the sense of smell, the sense of the paradoxes, and one day I gave up by trying classifying smells, scents, fragrances, perfumes and analogue products in classical or conventional art categories.
To me, smelling is a thoroughly emotional process, and I would say that scent preferences, its likes and dislikes, and in how we perceive them are related to personal lifetime odour memories and experiences and are purely of subjective type.

I think composing fragrances is an ART ACT whether an independent perfumer or an industrial perfumer does it. But then perfumes are not automatically art works. 
While the creating pretensions like: intuition, imagination, passion for scent material and technical knowhow are for both the same there will be big differences in marketing claims and production facilities which influence a lot the final product.
  
I look at my creations as an expression of my great range of life experience – of my personal “Art of Living”, and a perfect fragrance is for me then a work at once, if by smelling and wearing it, something triggers that is far beyond of just recognizing it as a “nice” scent – I’d say it’s something like PURE MAGIC!  It leaves you there – just SANS PAROLES…

©.vero.profumo. by Vero Kern, a Swiss Perfumer

We continue our series with Dawn Spencer-Hurwitz, perfumer, Parfums des Beaux Arts, USA

Question: "What constitutes art in perfumery for you and how do you envision this in the reality of the fragrance industry?"

Dawn Spencer-Hurwitz: " I came to Perfumery from a Fine Art background and have, from the first, considered perfumery to be as essential an art form for our sense of smell as painting, sculpture, fashion and music are for the other senses. 

It is the the art form of the unseen, but deeply felt; the art form that speaks directly to the emotions and the spiritual as well as the sensual in us simultaneously.  I have always considered myself an artist first; as a perfumer and as a perfume idealist.  I employ the same kind of thought process and creative inspiration with perfumery that I would to create a painting. 

The criteria is the same: line, shape, texture, 'color', light and movement.  I ask myself what does the perfume "art piece" speak to? What emotions does it evoke or what places, people or imaginings can it conjure with each breathe of the perfume?   I especially like to consider the abstract: what kind of experience can be expressed through a perfume? 

It is so subjective and yet we all share experience.  This kind of inspiration can be conveyed so poetically and profoundly through perfume.  It can speak to a wide 'audience' where there are no words.  I love perfume for this reason: it has the power to speak the unspoken language.

© Dawn Spencer-Hurwitz, perfumer

We continue our series with  Mandy Aftel, perfumer, from San Francisco, USA

Question: "What constitutes art in perfumery for you and how do you envision this in the reality of the fragrance industry?"

Mandy Aftel: A beautiful perfume is both rigorous and dreamy -- complete and uniquely itself.  All the essences are necessary to the final perfume, with nothing  extraneous or gratuitous. 

I create perfume--and people wear it--because beauty and art are a vacation from reality. Beauty brings about a morally valuable state in the mind of the beholder.  A well-proportioned and beautiful perfume can make those who smell it long to enter a realm of such beauty and perfect proportion.  The power of beauty may derive from its ability to minister to this longing.  The beautiful object creates in the mind of those who attend to it the spiritual home that reality does not provide. Beauty sustains an inner life. It feeds us.

The essences of artisan natural perfumery are expensive, seasonal, and non-repeatable, and their nature varies with climate, growing conditions, and the humans who cultivate, harvest, and distill them. This world - sensual, rich, and deep, bringing with it the history of peoples and eccentric individuals, secrets of seduction and spirituality, medicine and folkways – made sense to me on an almost primal level. The finished perfume bears the imprint of all of these factors, along with the artistry of its creator. It is further distinguished by its interaction with the skin of the wearer.
To create with essence is to encounter the deepest nature of a thing, which is in some sense greater than the thing itself. Working with essences, you dive deep in order to touch the universal. Irreducible and narcotic, they transport you into the polymorphous intensity of the present, in all its inchoate sensuality. Essences are at once specific and collective, earthly and otherworldly.  This holistic character  helps to explain why we feel in them the effect of beauty, even though we cannot put our finger on just what it is that pleases us so much.

The sweet, the foul, the spicy, and the putrid - I find them all alluring.  I love the way they smell and the way they look, some like liquid rubies or emeralds in the light, some thick and pasty, other light and thin.  Yet for all their seductiveness, fragrances—like colors--are neither beautiful nor ugly in themselves. Beauty derives from context. Matisse in his Notes d’un Peintre explains that when colors are combined in a painting they can diminish one another: “The different marks I employ must be balanced in such a way that they do not destroy one another.” A painter would not refuse to use yellow because yellow is an ugly color; she would simply use a particular shade of yellow where it was needed. The beauty of a color in a painting is dependent upon how that color functions in the painting.
Likewise, to a perfumer no essence is ugly --- they are all of use toward the aesthetic goal of creating something beautiful. “In the ‘summa’ attributed to Alexander of Hales,” observes Umberto Eco in On Beauty,  “the created universe is a whole that is to be appreciated in its entirety, where the contribution of shadows is to make light shine out all the more, and even that which can be considered ugly in itself appears beautiful within the framework of the general order.   It is this order as a whole that is beautiful, but from this standpoint even monstrosity is redeemed because it contributes to the equilibrium of that order.”

Music also captures the way scent is experienced—not all at once but unfolding over time—a quality that in perfume is referred to as duration. In this unfolding lies that unparalleled power of these arts over memory and emotion. Music and scent can calm us, or they can arouse our passions--and in our ecstasies, exalt us. They seize us, they transport us to the highest realms, feeding a desire for intoxication. They alter our consciousness in a way that symbolic systems like language cannot, nor can their most transcendent effects be fully expressed by language. They are ineffable.

© Mandy Aftel, www.aftelier.com