Art

illy and contemporary art: uniting the beautiful and the good.

CONTEMPORARY ART

Goodness and Beauty according to illy

Kalòs kài agathòs, goodness and beauty. The Greek philosopher Plato believed that goodness and beauty are inseparable ideals that together represent the concept of perfection. In the Platonic sphere of ideas, that which is beautiful (Kalòs) is also good (Agatòos) and true. Their union as kalokagathia represents a constant striving for excellence, in seeking and creating beauty, and in aspiring to harmony.

OUR LOGO'S HISTORY

illy and James Rosenquist

Designed in 1996, the illy brand bears the signature of James Rosenquist, an artist among the founders of American Pop Art of the 1960s. A way to emphasize the strong bond between illy and the contemporary artistic spirit.

ILLY ART COLLECTION

If coffee is experienced with all five senses, the very objects that hold coffee should please the eye. Twenty years ago, illy considered how an everyday object like a coffee cup could be rethought – elevated, in fact, to meld the sensory pleasures of coffee and art.

This insight gave rise to the illy Art Collection: small works of art, taking ceramic cup as medium, transforming the simple pleasure of drinking an espresso into an experience that fully engages the senses and the mind.

illy Art Collection

A meeting of two passions: Coffee and Art

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18557 Attruia illy Art Collection libro espresso

ZAGNOLI

QUINN

ABRAMOVIC

PETRONE

GALIMBERTI

ILLY AND "LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA"

illy took its longstanding involvement in the arts to a level deeper in 2003, when it partnered with the Venice La Biennale, one of the world’s preeminent cultural events. illy has participated in every Biennale since, with increasingly thought-provoking exhibitions, often in the form of visually striking spaces that stimulate the mind, while providing an illymind space to relax and reflect. A respite not unlike that of a beautiful coffee moment.

Each Biennale’s illymind space is created in collaboration with renowned artists, designers and other cultural forces, each in tune with the atmosphere it populates

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