Artwork is a large part of a brewery’s identity and a definite driving factor behind the success of the best-known brands we love.
The larger breweries were at the forefront of recognising the power of art and employed graphic designers to design labels, beer mats, postcards, posters, billboards and other point of sale material.
Some of our all-time favourite TV adverts were produced for brewers and contained an enormous amount of imagination, and skill to produce for example the “I bet he drinks …” campaign for Carling Black Label and the Surfer campaign for Guinness.
Brewers have been keeping sculptors and stonemasons busy for over 250 years. Michael Thomas Bass was the subject of at least two sculptures, one a bust that is on show in the NBC and a full-length statue on a plinth standing near Derby City Museum. Michael Arthur Bass (Lord Burton) has his statue outside Burton upon Trent Town Hall and on a visit to London you might get to see, on a plinth on the South Bank, the stone lion that once stood in the Red Lion Brewery of Hoare & Co.
As a measure of their status brewers often chose to have their portrait painted. A good selection has been added to National Brewery Centre collections and some are exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery. The Brewers of Europe HQ in Brussels is home to several significant artworks from the National Brewery Centre Collection, on temporary loan from Molson Coors.
Famous artists such as Picasso and Manet were inspired by beer and Bass beer is mentioned in poetry by Kipling and books by Jerome K Jerome.
In summary, the breweries have had a significant impact in the world of art and graphic design. Now, in a twist of fate, a number of contemporary artists are using the beer itself to paint with, and the cans, tabs, bottle and caps to fashion their creations ranging from realistic to abstract, each bringing their own flavour to the artistic process. And just like the beer industry, it’s not just local, its global. These artists are from a wide range of places and have found common ground in this unexpected material inspiration!