Swarovski’s travelling exhibition will open at Milan’s Palazzo Citterio in June, celebrating almost 130 years of the Austrian house’s storied heritage as Masters of Light across the worlds of fashion, jewellery, and pop culture.
Entitled Swarovski - Masters of Light from Vienna to Milan, the exhibition, which premiered in Shanghai last Fall, will be displayed across the internal salons of Palazzo Citterio, the magnificent extension of Pinacoteca di Brera in the heart of Milan. This cultural partnership with Milan’s foremost museum will allow visitors to admire for the first time the renovated Palazzo, which will host the modern art collections of Pinacoteca di Brera donated by the Jesi and Vitali families from December 2024.
Paying homage to the fashion industry that is the beating heart of the Made in Italy brand, it will bring together an exceptional selection of over 50 crystal-embellished couture masterpieces from fashion houses including Gucci, Versace, and Armani.
It will also showcase a unique array of shimmering stage costumes and red carpet looks worn by stars such as Harry Styles, Katy Perry, and Rihanna as well as jewellery pieces, figurines, and crystals - including the largest crystal chaton ever created.
Other highlights include ‘Galaxy’, the new fine jewellery collection made with laboratory grown Swarovski Created Diamonds, a Pop-Up store where visitors can browse an exclusive Swarovski product assortment, and a garden Café housed in the Palazzo Citterio’s orangery, with a menu created by renowned Milanese chef Carlo Cracco.
Mapping a journey through time and space across the brand’s history since 1895, this landmark show is the first exploration of the heritage and revolutionary spirit of one of the oldest European luxury houses.
Swarovski - Masters of Light is a travelling exhibition envisioned by Swarovski Global Creative Director Giovanna Engelbert and curated by British fashion journalist, author, and critic Alexander Fury. It will open to the public at Palazzo Citterio from June 17 to July 14, 2024, free of charge.
For more information, please contact:
Swarovski Global PR: global.pr@swarovski.com
ABOUT SWAROVSKI
Masters of Light Since 1895
Swarovski creates beautiful products of impeccable quality and craftsmanship that bring joy and celebrate individuality.
Founded in 1895 in Austria, the company designs, manufactures, and sells the world's finest crystals, Swarovski Created Diamonds and zirconia, jewellery, and accessories, as well as home décor and crystals for Automotive.
Swarovski Crystal Business is represented in over 140 countries worldwide with 2,300 Swarovski boutiques complemented by selected multibrand partners and employs 16,600 people. Together with its sister companies Swarovski Optik (optical devices) and Tyrolit (abrasives), Swarovski Crystal Business forms the Swarovski Group. A responsible relationship with people and the planet is part of Swarovski’s heritage. Today this legacy is rooted in sustainability measures across the value chain, with an emphasis on circular innovation, championing diversity, inclusion, and self-expression, and in the philanthropic work of the Swarovski Foundation, which supports charitable organisations bringing positive environmental and social impact.
ABOUT PINACOTECA DI BRERA
The Pinacoteca di Brera, museum of international repute in the heart of Milan, is located on the first floor of the Palazzo di Brera and consists of 38 rooms overlooking the Courtyard of Honour. Its collection has more than 500 works on display and over a thousand kept in storage. It offers an overview of Italian painting from the 13th to the 20th century, integrating subsequent donations and acquisitions into the original heritage. In particular, the Jesi and Vitali collections belong to the Pinacoteca, full of twentieth-century masterpieces. They will constitute the essential nucleus of future installations in the spaces of Palazzo Citterio, which will host the new Brera museum dedicated to modern art.
The Pinacoteca di Brera was initially established alongside the Accademia di Belle Arti which Maria Theresa of Austria founded in 1776 to offer the students the opportunity to study lofty masterpieces of art close up. Brera became a museum to host the most important works of art from all of the areas conquered by the armies of Napoleon. So unlike other important museums in Italy such as the Uffizi, Brera did not start out life as the private collection of a prince or nobleman but as the product of a deliberate policy decision.
Paintings confiscated from churches and convents throughout Lombardy with the religious orders’ dissolution began to pour into the museum in the early years of the 19th century, soon to be joined by artworks of similar provenance from other areas of the Kingdom of Italy. This explains why the collection comprises chiefly religious works, many of them large altarpieces, and accounts for Brera’s special aura on which later acquisitions have had only a minor impact.
ABOUT ALEXANDER FURY
Alexander Fury is a fashion journalist, author, critic, and curator. He is the fashion director of AnOther Magazine and the men's critic of the Financial Times. Formerly, he held the role of fashion editor at the Independent newspapers (2013-2016) and chief fashion correspondent at T: The New York Times Style Magazine (2016-2018). In 2018, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, and curated the 'Dress of the Year' at the Fashion Museum, Bath. Fury co-curated the 2022-23 'Forever Valentino' exhibition alongside Massimiliano Gioni and Pierpaolo Piccioli. In 2018, he wrote for the 'Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier' exhibition at the Design Museum, London, the first UK retrospective of the designer's work. Additionally, he curated media for 'The Vulgar: Fashion Redefined' exhibition (2016) and advised the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Fury has published monographs on fashion designers including Christian Dior, Vivienne Westwood and Chanel and contributed to numerous exhibition catalogues.
