"Tulips for Andy Warhol": the Ravenna mosaic now illuminates the tomb of the father of Pop Art in Pittsburgh.
The work by the Dis-Ordine association of Ravenna, born from a four-year project and inspired by a drawing by Francesco Clemente, was placed on Andy Warhol's grave in St. John's Cemetery.
“Tulips for Andy Warhol”: the mosaic from Ravenna that now illuminates the tomb of the father of Pop Art in Pittsburgh.
After four years of work, research and international exchanges, the mosaic Tulips – designed and built by the association Dis-Order of Ravenna – has finally reached its final destination: the Andy Warhol's tomb at St. John's Byzantine Catholic Cemetery in Pittsburgh.
The work, a unique and symbolic tribute to the father of Pop Art, will remain permanently placed on the artist's burial site, strengthening an ideal bridge between Ravenna, the capital of mosaics, and American visual culture.
The project originates from an intuition that matured in 2021, on the occasion of a meeting at Casa Matha in Ravenna dedicated to the links between Warhol and Dante.
It was from that conference that the idea was born, almost by magic, as he tells Marcello Landi, president of Dis-Ordine – to create an artistic gesture capable of “filling the regret” of not having managed to bring Warhol to Ravenna in the 1980s.
The mosaic, inspired by a original drawing by Francesco Clemente – personal friend of Warhol – depicts two tulips, the artist's favorite flowers.
The work was created with vitreous enamels from the Orsoni glassworks in Venice by Sofia Laghi and Isabella Merendi, with the supervision of Elena Pagani and Marcello Landi and the technical support of Tommaso Bonzi and Edoardo Missiroli. The dimensions, 89 x 26 x 4 cm , give the mosaic elegance and chromatic intensity, making it a discreet but very powerful tribute.
Before leaving for the United States, Tulips was officially presented to the MAR – Art Museum of the city of Ravenna, reconfirming the city's vocation to dialogue with contemporary art through the age-old language of mosaic.
The mosaic comes to decorate a tomb that has remained almost bare until now, visited by enthusiasts who leave, as an emotional rite, Coca-Cola bottles and Campbell's Soup cansThe work therefore brings a sign of care and beauty where before there was only essentiality.
The collaboration of was fundamental for the authorization Eleonora Gardini and Damiana Leoni, who presented the project to Donald Warhola, Andy's nephew, gaining his full support: “He really liked the mosaic,” says Landi.
The Councillor for Culture of Ravenna, Fabio Sbaraglia, commented: “Thanks to this initiative, our city pays homage to one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century.
The mosaic demonstrates once again the contemporary strength of the mosaic language and the international role of Ravenna."
With Tulips, a fragment of Ravenna reaches Pittsburgh and meet the history of Pop Art, in an artistic dialogue that transcends borders, eras and traditions.
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