CATANIA - The fabulous world of Andy Warhol, the most photographed artist in the world, and the anonymous Banksy who has never posed for a photo and who risks arrest from Disneyland to Palestine, making his art a global media event, are for the first time compared in the exhibition 'Bansky-Andy Warhol', until 2 June at the Palazzo della Cultura in Catania. The exhibition, curated by Sabina de Gregori and Giuseppe Stagnitta, documents the innovative and revolutionary path of two great artists and apparently distant personalities in over 100 works. On the one hand, Warhol and his works have become a consumer product and his name a real brand. And on the other Banksy,great communication expert who continues to be talked about by transforming street vandalism into an international front page event, capable of reaching the entire planet, now a successful brand recognized all over the world, and not only in that of art.
Two artists whose most famous works ever made are themselves: "In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes" said Warhol and Banksy "Everyone in life will have 15 minutes of anonymity".
Brilliant figures, capable of creating a powerful cocktail of celebrity, satire and voyeurism. The works on display come from famous private collections around the world and from important art galleries. There are Banksy's sensual Kate Moss in the Marylin pose created by Warhol in 1962, Banksy's famous Hula Hoop wall made with the stencil technique in Nottingham in 2020 as an invitation to recover the sense of things and the famous 1967 self-portrait painting Self Portrait of Warhol. And then Warhol's political portraits of Mao and Lenin and Banksy's painting of Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Queen Elizabeth. Again, Warhol's one-of-a-kind portraits of Mick Jagger, Billy Squier and Judy Garland. The path also highlights the great themes common to both artists such as music and cinema.Fandango Libri will publish the essay on the two artists, edited by de Gregori and Stagnitta, which will accompany the exhibition promoted by the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Catania.