Vatican Museums will not show Warhol exhibit
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
One of Andy Warhol’s colleagues called him “a religious artist for a secular society.” But artworks by the Pittsburgh native that show the influence of his Byzantine Catholic faith will not be exhibited next year at the Vatican Museums in Vatican City.
“We were informed last week that the Vatican Museums would not host the show,” said Rick Armstrong, a spokesman for The Andy Warhol Museum, adding that he did notknow the reason for the decision.
“Art museums often change schedules. We had never announced it because it had never been scheduled. It was still in discussion. There never was a written agreement,” he said, adding that The Andy Warhol Museum does not announce exhibitions until agreements are signed.
In January, the Vatican Museums’ director, Barbara Jatta, told The Art Newspaper that her organization and The Andy Warhol Museum would host a dual exhibition of Warhol’s works, including his interpretation of “The Last Supper,” the famous mural in Milan created by Leonardo da Vinci. The show was slated for St. Peter’s Square in a museum called the Braccio di Carlo Magno. In that January interview, Ms. Jatta said her organization was interested in exploring Warhol’s spiritual side and having a dialogue about contemporary art.
Warhol met Pope John Paul II at the Vatican on April 2, 1980. Two years later, he created a series of red and yellow crosses, silkscreened against a black background. He also produced silkscreens of skulls, a religious symbol reminding people of their mortality.
Jose Carlos Diaz, chief curator of The Andy Warhol Museum on Pittsburgh’s North Side, is organizing the show that will explore Warhol’s religious-themed artworks. The exhibition will explore how the Byzantine Catholic faith influenced Warhol and his work.
While growing up in Pittsburgh, Andy Warhol attended divine liturgy at St. John Chrysostom Church in Greenfield. The artist and filmmaker collected religious objects, such as crosses, and, while living in New York, attended Mass at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in Manhattan’s Lenox Hill neighborhood.
Neither the exhibition’s title nor a checklist of all works to be exhibited has been finalized for next year’s show that will open in October 2019, Mr. Armstrong said.
It will mark the 25th anniversary of the opening of The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.
“It is supposed to travel, but those venues have not been finalized,” he said.