Vatican to show Warhol
January 30, 2018
The Vatican Museums are rounding up their talks with Pittsburgh's Andy Warhol Museum for a 2019 show, director Barbara Jatta told the Catholic news agency KNA.
Jatta, who has been the Vatican Museums director for just over a year — and is the first female to hold the post — said that exploring the "mystical Warhol" is a wonderful idea. However, she also said that the project must be "defined in more detail" and that there was no concrete date for the exhibition.
According to The Art Newspaper, the exhibition is to be shown in both Rome and Pittsburgh, where Warhol grew up. "It is very, very important for us to have a dialogue with contemporary art," Jatta told the newspaper. "We live in a world of images and the Church must be part of this conversation."
The pop artist is best known for his depictions of Campbell's soup cans and images of Marilyn Monroe. However, during the last year of his life he painted over 100 images inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci's "The Last Supper," among other religious depictions.
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The Art Newspaper said that the 2019 exhibition will include paintings from Warhol's 'Last Supper' series from 1986. It would also include silkscreens of skulls, as well as films and archival materials.
A hotbed of artists
Born in Pittsburgh to Slovakian parents in 1928, Warhol attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology. After moving to New York City, the artist, producer and director turned his studio into what would be known as "The Art Factory," where countless artists, drag queens, celebrities and patrons would gather.
Warhol was a practicing Ruthenian Catholic. The Catholic Herald reported that while living in New York, Warhol would regularly attend mass at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer. Warhol died in 1987 at the age of 58.