Who Are Jake and Dinos Chapman? Artists Dragged Into Balenciaga Discussion

Artist brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman have been dragged into the conversation surrounding the Balenciaga photo-shoot scandal in recent days, as critics of the luxury fashion brand pore over details of past campaigns and collaborators.

Balenciaga has encountered a backlash over since-deleted ad campaign images on its website that showed toddlers holding the company's teddy bear handbags. The stuffed toys appeared to be dressed in bondage gear, including fishnet shirts and studded leather harnesses and collars.

A number of public figures spoke out against the depiction. Balenciaga brand ambassador Kim Kardashian recently stated that she was "disgusted" and "shaken" by the images and was "reevaluating" her relationship with the company. Balenciaga apologized for the campaign and pulled the images, which some on social media had described as "child porn."

In their scrutiny of Balenciaga and entities associated with the beleaguered brand, social media users recently posted images of the Chapman brothers' art pieces depicting children with genitalia in place of their noses and mouths, among other features, on the website of auction house Christie's.

Christie's is owned by Groupe Artémis, François-Henri Pinault's holding company. Multibillionaire Pinault, the husband of screen star Salma Hayek, is also the chairman and CEO of Kering, the multinational company that owns Balenciaga, leading some online to draw connections between the two.

Despite the online criticism, there is no evidence to suggest that Pinault would have had any input on the works in question, or any other art, going up on the Christie's website.

Who Are Jake and Dinos Chapman?

Born in the U.K. in the 1960s, Jake and Dinos Chapman came to prominence in the 1990s as leading members of the so-called Young British Artists generation.

The visual artists made a name for themselves for their deliberately provocative work and were nominated for the prestigious Turner Prize in 2003.

In an interview with the image-licensing service Artimage in 2018, they said of their work: "We reflect upon the conditions of our experience, first as tragedy then as farce."

After decades of success as a duo, Jake Chapman told The Guardian in May that he and his elder brother had gone their separate ways creatively.

"Nothing about our practice was amicable," he said. "It was never a love-in. It was always tinged with a certain seething disdain for each other, so I guess at some point that reached critical mass and we decided to go our separate ways."

Among the brothers' art pieces featured on the Christie's website that have recently been discussed on social media are depictions of naked children, some of whom are conjoined. There are also depictions of severed heads.

The brothers' work has been sold through Christie's for more than two decades, achieving prices that range from hundreds of dollars to more than $500,000.

Among the pieces sold was the videotape of a pornographic film, shot in 1996, which showed actresses having sex with the severed head of an adult male mannequin. It sold in 2001 for the equivalent of more than $1,300.

Images of the art pieces were circulated on Twitter and Reddit this week, with users of the social media platforms branding them "disturbing" and "shocking."

Others pointed out that it was wrong to draw any connection and criticized the attacks on Christie's. One Reddit user said: "Kering is the parent company of multiple luxury brands so I don't think billionaire owner Francois is really involved in each and every campaign of said brands. Neither is he sitting in Christie's office checking their affiliated artists. This whole post reads like a Q conspiracy theory."

Another said: "You can hate Jake & Dinos all you want, but Christie's really has nothing to do with them or what they're trying to do with their art."

Newsweek has reached out to representatives of Christie's and the Chapmans for comment.