Ninety years after his birth, a new exhibition is presented at Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome, a further tribute to Andy Warhol, who died in 1987.
His projects, his works, his creatures have conditioned whole generations for good and for bad. A multi-dimensional artistic figure, Warhol united the art of cinema and the star system, music and fashion in a unicum. His American dream was to become the great artist of the business, no matter what was the price.
The Icons of Andy Warhol
It was July 9th 1962 when a young artist and illustrator, son of Slovak immigrants and originally from Pittsburgh, inaugurated his first exhibition exposing Campbell’s Soup cans made by silk-screen and acrylic on canvas. His name is destined to go down in history: Andy Warhol. “Flat and provocative works”, judges a part of criticism without wondering why simple food cans assume the role of “inspiring muses”.
In the 1950s, artists were forced to deal with new forms of mass communication and Warhol uses advertising as a platform for making art. The result is a historical paradox where the object, the common symbol recognizable by everyone in everyday life, is ennobled in a work of art and takes on the role of “pop icon”. Using the serigraphic technique, Warhol multiplies his works in series and re-establishes a process of objectification of the depicted subject; there is no longer any uniqueness, but everything is leveled by the shock wave of global mass communication.
Andy Warhol’s relationship with music
In 1963 Warhol moved his studio on the forty-seventh est and the Factory immediately became a place of worship. The artist is the catalyst center of the New York culture, the record labels are competing to make him realize the covers of the records and in particular RCA joins a partnership with him.
The best-known image among the Rolling Stones records is the work of Warhol: Sticky Fingers of 1971 shows the shot, front and back, of a jeans with a real zip. Once again it is the erotic winking that the artist seeks. During the 80s he made many musical covers which also produced screen printing works. He didn’t miss the tributes to great artists like Liza Minelli, John Lennon and Aretha Franklin.
Fashion and star system according to Warhol
The link between Warhol and the fashion world has been found since the early Fifties with the collaboration with periodicals. Fashion for Warhol is a nuance of art itself, in which everyone can disguise himself or be as he wants.
In a short time, thanks to the new friendships of the environment, Andy is overwhelmed by an intense worldliness, a sort of vip society wide but at the same time limited in places and elite clubs like the Studio54. There are many images that immortalize him in the club with VIPs and friends.
The use of Polaroids
Born from the intuition of Mr Land in the 30s, instant photography for Warhol is a necessary tool; at the beginning of his career portraiture is one of the main sources of income for him.
The Polaroid, as well as an “unicum unrepeatable”, is a first factor for the serigraph portrait. Warhol makes photographic portraits to the protagonists of the world of fashion, cinema and sport.
Info about the exhibition
from 3rd October 2018 to 23 February 2019
Orario: from 9:30 am to 7:30 pm (Friday and Saturday 10.00 pm – Sunday 8.30 pm)
Prices:
Full ticket € 13,00 (+ presale)
Reduced ticket € 11,00 (+ presale)
