Raise a Glass

Celebrated French sculptor Jean-Michel Othoniel worked with Dior Men designer Kim Jones on a unique costume for his induction into Paris’s prestigious Académie des Beaux-Arts

Anyone who has been to Paris in the last 20 years is likely to be familiar with the arches of glass bubbles at the entrance to the Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre metro station. The cupolas, which have become a popular rendezvous marker for Parisians and tourists alike, are the work of French sculptor Jean-Michel Othoniel, who created them in 2000 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Paris subway. Othoniel’s spindling glass sculptures, made alongside the best Murano and Basel glassmakers, have enchanted the art world for the last three decades. He has held exhibitions at the Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul, the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, and the Brooklyn Museum in New York, and his work is a part of the Louvre’s permanent collection.