Andy Warhol: Universo Warhol

A full immersion into the art of Andy Warhol, the king of Pop Art, told through more than 250 iconic works on loan and from private collections, encapsulating his entire creative universe.

Hosted in the Museo Storico della Fanteria, Universo Warhol presents an evocative artistic survey of the advertising graphic designer, talent scout, producer, publisher, photographer, and director Warhol: different expressive and professional roles that characterised the career of the father of Pop Art from 1949, the year of his arrival in New York, to 1987, the year of his untimely death.

The works on display include more than seventy silkscreens, twenty-four of which are After Andy Warhol: the serial Campbell's Soup, Marilyn Monroe (with a collage of twelve, from 1985, Sonnabend Collection), Electric Chairs, Mao, Flowers (in particular the series of flowerpots), Fish, Gems and Halston, plus the series dedicated to the beloved fairy tales author, Hans Christian Andersen, and those from the book Cats, depicting cats, another great passion of the artist.

The exhibition also includes twenty-four white Rosenthal porcelains, painted gold and signed by Warhol, and A Gold Book (1957), an artist's book with gilded pages featuring twenty offset lithographs and illustrations for Christmas.

The music section highlights Warhol's close relationship with the recording industry, but also with the artists of the Pop, Rock, and Jazz scene themselves through the 60 original vinyls with legendary Andy Warhol covers, including that of Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones and of the Velvet Underground & Nico's debut album with the peeling banana.

Do not miss the section devoted to Warhol's passion for photography and editorial activity with the founding of Interview, a magazine for which he produced covers featuring famous people and interviews. On display are some 20 covers depicting the faces of the likes of Jack Nicholson, Salvador Dali, Annie Lennox, Jacqueline Bisset, and Angelica Houston. The Ladies and Gentlemen series (1975), on the other hand, presents ten silkscreen portraits and 20 photographic acetates depicting the drag queens and nocturnal transvestites of the Gilded Grape, a legendary New York club.

The video of the silent, black-and-white experimental film Empire (1965), the poster and 11 promotional photographs in original prints of the docu-film Trash - The Waste of New York (1970), produced by Warhol and directed by Paul Morrissey, testify to Warhol's close relationship with cinema.

Produced by Navigare srl in collaboration with AICS Comitato Provinciale di Roma, Difesa Servizi and Art Book Web, under the patronage of the Città di Roma, the exhibition is curated by Achille Bonito Oliva and Vincenzo Sanfo, with Red Ronnie as curator for the session dedicated to music.

Photo: Campbell’s Soup (Tomato) Silkscreen on n. 58/250 88,9 x 58,4 cm Private Collection