About the Image
Andy Warhol was born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1928. His remarkable use of iconic images and material objects to comment on the relationship between mass culture, reproduction and art made him one of the most influential cultural figures of the 20th century.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was more than once the object of Warhol’s repetitive impulse, as in his Mona Lisa Montage.
Leonardo’s portrait of Mona Lisa holds special significance for our department. Begun in Italy, the portrait was taken to France in 1516 when Leonardo was invited to the court of Francis I and has remained there ever since.
To us, it stands for the two sides of our department and the intellectual reciprocity that exists between the two cultural traditions that we embrace. Andy Warhol’s extended engagement with and mediation of the Mona Lisa further enhances the importance of this image for us, linking these intertwined traditions to Pittsburgh and its own rich cultural and social history.