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Illycaffè unveils the latest addition to its renowned illy Art Collection. This time in collaboration with legendary American artist Judy Chicago.
Designed by Mattheo Thun in 1992 for the Trieste-based coffee company illycaffè, the espresso cup has undoubtedly become a true design icon.
The Art Collection project turns the iconic white porcelain cup into a canvas: the “tazzina” has already served as a creative platform for over 100 renowned contemporary artists, including international names such as Michaelangelo Pistoletto, Marina Abramović, Sandro Chia, Ai Weiei, Julian Schnabel, Robert Rauschenberg, Jeff Koons and James Rosenquist. But the project also repeatedly offers young talents from all over the world a platform to express their creativity and spread their art.
With Judy Chicago, the Art Collection is being expanded to include one of the most influential contemporary women artists. As a pioneer of the “Feminist Art Movement”, the American artist has been addressing historical-social gender relations since the 1970s and has thus significantly initiated the discourse on gender roles, feminism and the significance of female creativity in art. Indeed, “The Dinner Party”, one of her greatest works, has attracted attention as it depicts a symbolic table set for important women in world history. A self-conscious representation of female achievements and identity that challenges a historiography traditionally dominated by male perspectives.
Female representation is also the subject of her 1973 series of paintings “Reincarnation Triptych”, which has now been revisited for the illy Art Collection. Here, Chicago uses a lively and pulsating colour palette, which is partly contrasting, partly soft and harmonious. The colours symbolise the different social conditions and constraints that women found themselves exposed to in the past.
The collection is designed as a set of 4, with each cup representing a notable historical female figure: French Queen Marie Antoinette, philosopher and author Madame de Stael and writers George Sand and Virginia Woolf.
By collaborating with illy, Judy Chicago hopes to make her art more accessible to a wider range of people and to spark curiosity and conversation about women and gender roles.
The new illy Art collection will be available from July at the illy e-shop, official illy outlets (illy Caffè & illy Shop) and various retailers.
More information: www.illy.com