A Vincent van Gogh is not something that pops up often in yoga practice, but thanks to a collaboration between lifestyle company Sugarmat, you can incorporate a masterpiece by the Dutch master as you get deep into your asana.
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The Montreal-based company which is known for its stylish range of yoga and fitness mats is launching a collaboration of yoga mats with London’s The National Gallery, the storied art museum which is home to Britain’s national collection of European paintings.
The artwork from the National Gallery that were chosen incorporated “elements of yoga in them”, according to Sugarmat’s creative director Heikal Gani. The 18th-century oil painting Whistlejacket by British artist George Stubbs, which features a racehorse, “is the embodiment of unrestrained natural energy, a free spirit”.
The six-piece collection is dubbed The Masterpiece and features mats printed with artworks such as Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses) by Paul Cezanne and Claude Monet’s The Water-Lily Pond. The designs will be retailing on Sugarmat’s website starting November 16.
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The company’s Singapore-born founder and creative director Heikal Gani reveals that The National Gallery came knocking with the idea for the tie-up earlier this year. The project took six months to conceptualise and be completed.
The Masterpiece series appears on Sugarmat’s Lux Form collection which boasts the brand’s thickest mats.
“We’ve always prided ourselves on working with artists – for instance, we worked with a Black artist, Kendra Dandy, for our Sassy Collection last year and proceeds went to the Black Lives Matter movement,” says Heikal who added that Sugarmat has been featuring prints on its mats since its launch in 2016.
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“But when The National Gallery London approached us, it was such a compliment, and honestly, possibly the most exciting collection we’ve done yet.”
The six artists featured in The Masterpiece are Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, George Stubbs, Paul Cezanne, Diego Velazquez and Nicolas Poussin.
The Masterpiece series will fall under Sugarmat’s Lux Form collection which boasts the thickest mats by the company. Measuring 5mm in thickness, the mats are also wider and longer so that they can be used for more than just yoga.
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Each mat in the collection comes with a polyurethane-coated top side and a textured natural rubber bottom side for traction. “We use non-toxic dyes that are digitally printed that will not rub off no matter how many pigeon poses you get into,” quips Heikal.
Ahead, we showcase the mats from The Masterpiece outing – and if you like what you see, Heikal reveals that Sugarmat and The National Gallery are already planning a sequel featuring more yoga and athletic accessories.
