Andy Warhol – Dalla collezione di Peter Brant

Andy Warhol, padre della Pop Art americana, torna a Milano con una grande monografica che aprirà a Palazzo Reale.

Comunicato stampa

Andy Warhol, padre della Pop Art americana, torna a Milano con una grande monografica che aprirà a Palazzo Reale. Prodotta dall'Assessorato alla Cultura del Comune di Milano, Palazzo Reale, 24 ORE Cultura – Gruppo 24 ORE e Arthemisia Group, la mostra, con il contributo di Francesco Bonami, è curata da Peter Brant, appassionato collezionista che, fin da giovanissimo, iniziò a collezionare opere di artisti contemporanei americani mettendole poi a disposizione per fini di studio e divulgazione attraverso la Brant Foundation.

L'arte di Andy Warhol, che portava gli scaffali di un supermercato all'interno di un museo o di una mostra d'arte, era una provocazione continua: l'arte doveva essere "consumata" come un qualsiasi altro prodotto commerciale.
La ripetizione era il suo metodo di successo: su tele di grandi dimensioni riproduceva moltissime volte la stessa immagine alterandone i colori, prevalentemente vivaci e forti; prendendo immagini pubblicitarie di importanti marchi commerciali (famose le sue bottiglie di Coca Cola) o immagini di grande impatto visivo ed emotivo riusciva a svuotarle di significato proprio con la ripetizione su vasta scala.

Andy Warhol, the father of American Pop Art, returns to Milan with a major monographic show due to open at Palazzo Reale as part of what is being called Milan's "American Autumn," starting on 24 September with the “Pollock e gli Irascibili” exhibition. Produced by the Assessorato alla Cultura del Comune di Milano, Palazzo Reale, 24 ORE Cultura – Gruppo 24 ORE and Arthemisia Group, the exhibition, with the contribution of Francesco Bonami, is curated by Peter Brant. An avid collector, whose interest in art was first sparked when he was still a child, Peter Brant has amassed a collection of the works of contemporary American artists, making them available for scholarly study and promoting the appreciation of contemporary art through the Brant Foundation.

As Francesco Bonami writes: “Andy Warhol from the Brant collection is a rare opportunity for the public to be able to see one of the most important groups of works of this American artist (…) assembled not merely by a collector, however empassioned, but by someone like Peter Brant, an intimate friend of Warhol, with whom he shared the liveliest years both culturally and artistically in New York in the 1960s and '70s."
The show begins with Warhol's first drawings as an illustrator and ends with his spectacular Last Suppers—which were presented right here in Milan in 1987, Warhol's last exhibition before his death following a routine operation—and the self-portraits, by way of some of his more iconic works, like Electric Chairs, the great portrait of Mao, his flowers, along with one of Warhol's true masterpieces, Shot Light Blue Marilyn, a portrait of the famous American actress that still shows the signs of the bullet fired through the forehead by a friend of the artist in 1964, purchased for 5,000 dollars in 1967 by Brant with money made from a small investment.

With its masterpieces and other equally amazing but lesser known works, such as a series of Polaroids that have never been viewed in Europe, the Brant Foundation exhibition does not merely tell us about Warhol the star of the art world and the market, but also about the private Warhol, the friend, and the man.
Although many years have passed during which society has changed deeply, the works that the visitor will be able to admire at Palazzo Reale reveal how art never ages. As Francesco Bonami writes: “Great artists can have periods that are more or less interesting, but in their production they will always have something to communicate. Warhol speaks about our society, both today as he did then.”

Upon accepting the invitation to show his collection in Milan, Peter Brant said: “I am very honored to have this opportunity, because Andy would have been happy to return to Milan, a city that loved him and that he also loved, and that was deep within his heart."

After Milan the exhibition will travel to the prestigious LACMA Museum in Los Angeles, proof of the fact that the Palazzo Reale and Milan are a part of the great circuit of modern and contemporary art.