The exhibition presents 140 works by the father of Pop Art, from the series dedicated to Jackie and John Kennedy to those of Marilyn Monroe, through the serial reproduction of consumerist concept objects, to the investigation of other aspects such as music or the sexual revolution.
Andy Warhol represented the figure of a modern alchemist. The artist capable of transforming matter into shape through color and surface and light, up to the supreme beauty. Here the painter and the alchemist is to transform reality into the most extraordinary expression of him.
This exhibition - recalls Piero Addis, General Manager of the Reggia di Monza - is part of the broader project to enhance and promote the Reggia di Monza
Andy Warhol at the beginning of his career saw in the object of mass consumption, the symbol of the popular imagination on which the Pop art and here the idea from the serigraphs of Campbell's soup cans, Brillo detergent, and US dollar banknotes. Hence the need to transform this art into "serial" and therefore a repetitiveness allowed by the technique of photographic screen printing, a process that changed his approach to visual art.
The section that deals with the Myths beyond time. Warhol made the most of the opportunities associated with photographic screen printing after the death of Marilyn Monroe in August 1962; he created a series of works using a black and white publicity photo taken from the 1953 film "Niagara". Villa Reale displays some of these serigraphs: the series Jackie, ie the images of Jacqueline Kennedy, captured during the funeral of her husband John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The president of the United States is also the protagonist of Flash, eleven serigraphs depicting the media representation of the assassination of November 22, 1963.
While in the works of the seventies, Warhol used more neutral, anonymous and mechanized procedures to arrive at an inexpressive precision devoid of any emotional intensity. What interested him was truth and not reality, as the essence of the world and of things that can reach man through the means of mass communication. In Famous characters. For use and consumption They are portraits of Muhammad Ali, Mao Tse-Tung, the new Marilyn series and images of other personalities such as Leo Castelli, David Hockney, Man Ray, Liza Minnelli, Truman Capote, Carolina Herrera.
La show also sees a section that analyzes the Sexual revolution of which Warhol through the famous series Ladies and Gentlemen from 1975, where the characters represented are immortalized in an eccentric way with unnatural and exaggerated colors such as orange, lilac, acid green, bright red, manganese blue, ocher yellow, and shots where the disguise was evident.
Also present are the photos of Makos depicting Warhol in women's clothing and the screening of the film Women in revolt Part 1971, produced by Andy Warhol, shot in New York and dubbed in the Italian version by Vladimir Luxuria.
Finally, to close the exhibition, jewels by Armando Tanzini with an African pop taste, conceived and produced in collaboration with Andy Warhol and the projection of the last film shot by Andy Warhol of his trip from New York to Cape Code in May 1982"
Cover image: Andy Warhol, Mildred Scheel, 1980, silkscreen on paper, 91.4×11.9 cm
