GREAT ART WITHOUT BOUNDARIES: LAVAZZA PARTNERS WITH THE STATE HERMITAGE MUSEUM IN RUSSIA

In Saint Petersburg, Lavazza announces a three-year partnership with one of the world’s top museums and a major retrospective gets underway of the work of Mariano Fortuny, “The Magician of Venice”, paying tribute to this eclectic artist with deep ties to Italy and Venice.

Saint Petersburg, December 7, 2016 – Lavazza is pleased to announce today the three-year partnership signed with the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg: one of the world’s great cathedrals of art, which until March 12, 2017 will be hosting the exhibition “Mariano Fortuny. The Magician of Venice”, organised in collaboration with the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia [Venice Municipal Museum Foundation] with the support of Lavazza. This major retrospective of work by Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo pays tribute to a visionary artist who contributed to revolutionising style and design in the twentieth century and had deep ties with Italy and Venice.

This partnership enhances Lavazza’s “art collection” still further, joining existing relationships with top international museums and galleries, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Musei Civici Veneziani [Venetian Municipal Museums] and MUDEC (Museo delle Culture - Museum of Cultures, in Milan).

“It is an honour to be able to support the incredible cultural heritage of the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, a true cathedral of art in Russia and worldwide, with a three-year agreement that lets us communicate our values and further develop our presence in the world of art and culture. The Hermitage, regarded as one of the world’s ‘universal’ museums, attracts a daily international audience of the highest quality and provides the ideal setting for a global brand like Lavazza. We are also proud to launch our partnership with this major retrospective of the work of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, an eclectic and much-loved artist who has deep ties with Italy and Venice in particular. In the same way that Fortuny revolutionised the language of fashion and design, Lavazza has developed its own creative take on coffee, transforming it into an icon of Italian style in the world”, commented company board member Francesca Lavazza.

An eclectic, out of the ordinary artist, Mariano Fortuny (Granada 1871 - Venice 1949) was active in many different creative fields. A painter, photographer, creator of fashion, designer and scenographer, Fortuny and his innovations contributed to revolutionising social customs, tastes and stage design during the crucial transition period between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This gifted artist, who spent his childhood in Paris and Venice, before going on to choose Venice as his home and the source of his inspiration, is the subject at the State Hermitage Museum of the first exhibition ever organised in Russia of work by the artist, who enjoyed great fame in the land of the Tsars too.

The retrospective (from December 7, 2016 to March 12, 2017) is organised on a joint basis with the Musei Civici di Venezia Foundation and with the support of Lavazza, features over 200 works, amongst them the precious “Fortuny Vase” that is considered one of the masterpieces of the Hermitage’s collections.

Almost 150 works are on exceptional loan from the Civic Museums of Venice (most from the Fortuny Museum, the artist’s former home and studio) and others are coming from several private collections. The exhibition is taking place at the recently refurbished General Staff Building, where work is on show from the nineteenth century to the present day, the period during which Fortuny was active.

The official opening of the exhibition was attended by State Hermitage Museum Director Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky, Palazzo Fortuny Responsible Daniela Ferretti, and exhibition curator Tatyana Lekhovich.

The State Hermitage Museum forms part of the huge imperial palace complex that for two centuries, until 1917, was the home of the Romanov Tsars and their families. It extends across eight buildings and contains over three million works of art, including paintings, sculptures and the decorative arts, as well as an important section dedicated to Italian art, with masterpieces by Botticelli, Perugino and Leonardo Da Vinci.

The Fortuny exhibition is the first organised by State Hermitage Museum with the support of Lavazza, to strengthen even more this important partnership.

LAVAZZA and its commitment to promoting art and culture

Lavazza has a long history of promoting art and culture. From the first steps with undisputed advertising genius Armando Testa, through to the celebration of artistic creativity represented by the Lavazza Calendar, the company has always been a pioneer in the visual arts, from photography and design to fine advertising graphics, and today it is the partner of leading international art museums, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York (USA), the Musei Civici Veneziani in Venice (Italy), and the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg (Russia). Lavazza also offers its support to the MUDEC in Milan, the Merz Foundation, Camera (the Italian Center for Photography) in Turin and top international art and photography events worldwide, including Mia Fair in Milan and exhibitions by Steve McCurry, the author of the ¡Tierra! series of photographs shot in Honduras, Peru, Colombia, India, Brazil, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Vietnam, taking us on a journey to discover coffee trading routes and communicating all the passion and commitment that the Lavazza Foundation invests in coffee-producing communities.