Andy Warhol – Warhol Universe

Historical Infantry Museum, Rome

Advertising graphic designer, talent scout, producer, publisher, photographer and director, a full immersion in the universe of the king of American pop art, the Andy Warhol – Universe Warhol exhibition, illustrated in over 250 works including loans and private collections, representing the entire its creativity, a religion of consumption that eloquently manifests the current distinctive feature of mass society.

The experience of Warhol’s art is an enormous contribution that anticipates our adventure in the world of digital and serial images: a stolen shot, a quick glance, waste materials, all in a prescient perspective of what will come next.

Advertising, photography and cinema

The famous Campbell’s Soup, the Brillo Boxes, the historic bottles of Coca Cola that invade the world of advertising, photography that ranges from socialites, actors, drag queens, to superstar singers such as Lou Reed,Bob DylanandMick Jagger. Warhol is a prophet in cinema with the video of the silent and black and white experimental film Empire, directed in 1965, the poster and 11 promotional photographs in the original edition of the docu-film Trash – The waste of New York(1970), directed by Paul Morrissey and produced by Warhol.

And still portraits of famous artists, primarily the immortalized icon of Marilyn Monroe, Armani,Beuys,Man Ray >, by sportsmen of the caliber of Muhammad Ali up to the famous covers including some famous ones such as “peelable banana” for The Velvet Underground and the legendary ” zipped jeans” in Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones in 1971 completed with some rare guitars signed by themselves, Diana Ross etc…

Silver Factory

A very lively and exuberant homage can be admired in the reconstruction of the “Silver Factory“, the Manhattan loft, the extravagant and glittering creative studio covered in silver paper, the ideal ground for his unconventional creativity in the Big Apple of that time, with a melting pot of aspiring actors and actresses from the 1950s until its continued innovation in the 1980s.

The exhibition itinerary winds through rooms and some corridors that host the many works where all the facets of Warhol’s multifaceted talent are explored. “A Gold Book” (1957), artist’s book, 24 white Rosenthal porcelains, 60 vinyl records with original covers, 70 serigraphsof which 24 After Andy Warhol, the Tate Gallery Catalogue 1971 and more. The exhibition is completed by the artist’s polaroids, which constitute real preparatory studies, just as the drawing represented the preparatory study of a painting for the masters of Renaissance painting

“Fifteen minutes of fame”

“In the future everyone will be famous in the world for fifteen minutes”, was Andy Warhol’s visionary statement way back in 1968.

Warhol may not have imagined the cellphone, but he certainly recognized, explored, and exploited the human propensity for a certain kind of iconicity that was at once conscious and fleeting. Capitalism and celebrity, the two American icons, were combined by Warhol in his artistic expression and denunciation: Coca-Cola cans, the silk-screen prints of Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, are all a paradigm of an ephemeral moment of fame. Highlighted is the homage to the well-known Italian gallery owner and discoverer of Warhol, Lucio Amelio.

The exhibition is curated by Achille Bonito Olivaand Vincenzo Sanfo, with Red Ronnie who curated the session dedicated to music. Produced by Navigare srl in collaboration with AICS Provincial Committee of Rome, Difesa Servizi and Art Book Web, with the patronage of City of Rome.

Times:
From Monday to Friday: from 09.30 to 19.30. Saturday, Sunday and holidays: from 09.30 to 20.30. Last entry thirty minutes before closing.
Christmas holiday times:
24 and 31 December from 9.30am to 7.00pm, last entry 6.30pm
25 December from 3.00pm to 8.30pm, last entry 8.00pm
26 December, 6 January and 13 February 2024, from 9.30am to 8.30pm, last entry 8.00pm
1 January from 11.00 to 20.30, last entry 20.00

Tickets:
Weekends and holidays: full price €15; weekdays €13.00
Reduced (only at the ticket office) €10.00: every day Young people up to 14 years old, Journalists, University students, Conventions
Open Includes skip-the-line entry €16.00
Schools €5.00
Free: Children up to 5 years