The Coca-Cola Company will this year celebrate 100 years of its iconic glass bottle packaging, the Coca-Cola contour bottle, with a global art travelling exhibition. It has landed at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town and runs until 1 March, and will move to Constitution Hill, Johannesburg on 11 to 13 March 2015.
Titled ‘The Coca-Cola Bottle Art Tour: Inspiring Pop Culture For 100 Years’ the art tour celebrates and showcases the Coca-Cola contour bottle’s role in art, design and popular culture.
It features an amazing array of Coca-Cola themed art, actual historical artefacts and artwork by world renowned artists such as Burton Morris, Clive Barker and Norman Rockwell, including South Africa’s Mbongeni Buthelezi among many others.
“The Coca-Cola contour bottle continues to be at the center of the happiest moments shared by our consumers everywhere in the world today, as it were in 1915 when it was first patented. The Coca-Cola Art Tour serves as a reminder of the specialness of drinking a Coca-Cola from an ice-cold bottle and reinforce what we strive to achieve every day at Coca-Cola which is to make happiness happen,” said Sharon Keith, marketing director of Coca-Cola Southern Africa.
The contour bottle was granted its trademark status after appearing on the cover of TIME Magazine, it was the first commercial product to appear on the cover – cementing it as an American symbol and a global icon of popular culture. It has over time inspired many moments of happiness in film, social history, design and fine arts.
From Andy Warhol to Keith Haring and Matthew Williamson and Uniqlo, the contour bottle has gained global status and recognition as a muse to artists and designers around the world for 100 years.
