Location Palazzo della Ragione
Days 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27,
Address Piazza Mercanti, 1
Zone duomo

A new photography exhibit in Milan takes a closer look at the many faces of beauty through a series of iconic images shot for American Vogue.

Dolce & Gabbana celebrates the launch of its debut makeup collection with “Extreme Beauty in Vogue” an extraordinary exhibition at Milan’s Palazzo della Ragione.
Created and curated by American Vogue, the exhibition is designed and art-directed by Jean Nouvel.

The city of Milan and Palazzo Reale have provided the exhibition galleries. An accompanying catalogue will be published by Skira with an essay by Eva Respini.
“Extreme Beauty in Vogue” investigates the role of beauty in our culture as seen in a series of images from American Vogue of the past 75 years by the greatest photographers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Always audacious and often outrageous, the works are distinguished by their willingness to explore the limits of contemporary ideas about beauty as we perceive and aspire to it.

From pioneers to modern masters, photographers include George Hoyningen-Huene, Edward Steichen, Erwin Blumenfeld, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Annie Leibovitz, and Steven Klein. An entire section is devoted to Irving Penn, who transforms the face and body into images of extraordinary imaginative and aesthetic power. Almost 100 images, filtered through the lens of Vogue style, reveal profoundly sensual and highly provocative narratives that bear witness to complex cultural attitudes toward female appearance and self-expression.

Aesthetic canons shift and evolve. Yet beauty “is the only thing that time cannot kill. Philosophies die, religious creeds vanish, but the beautiful lives forever. It is the gift of all the ages, the sustenance of all peoples everywhere, and an eternal treasure.” (Oscar Wilde)

“Extreme Beauty in Vogue” opened in Milan March 4, 2009, during the autumn/winter 2009 ready-to-wear collections and runs through May 10, 2009.

Milan, Italy, Palazzo della Ragione
March 4 - May 10, 2009