Photo: Courchevel Tourisme

Courchevel, France – Haute Art Scene

Beauty is in the eye of the lift pass holder. For  five years running, Courchevel has been speckling its snowy French villages and high-mountainscapes with art installations that amuse, astound and occasionally alarm soignée visitors. The sultry curves of last season’s helmeted, paint-swirled sexpot Mademoiselle Courchevel by artist David Cintract more than likely raised more than eyebrows. Cintract was one of five contemporary artists showcased in L’Art au Sommet, an annual winter-long exhibition that turns this luxe resort into a frosty open-air museum. Along with the violins of legendary Arman, Julien Marinetti’s giant dogs, and pandas camped out on the mountain tops of the Trois Vallées, Harlem graffiti artist JonOne went from downtown to up-mountain with huge canvasses of graffiti erected on lift stations and walls. The outdoor eye candy keeps popping… You don’t have to wear Chanel to ride in a gondola (36 of them actually) decorated by Karl Lagerfeld, or have a special ticket to zoom to the resort’s highest peak in the new bronze-and-gold painted Saulire cable car with a lush interior inspired by the Orient Express. A completely new pop-up art tour on snow opens again in Courchevel this December.

www.courchevel.com