The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection

Desiree Zenowich
Getty Communications
(310) 440-7304
dzenowich@getty.edu


Mount Vesuvius, 1985. Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987). Acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen.
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Founding Collection.
© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York


The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection

At the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Villa
September 12, 2012–January 7, 2013

Pompeii and the other cities destroyed and paradoxically preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 are usually considered the places where we can best and most directly experience the daily lives of ancient Romans. Rather than presenting these sites as windows on the past, this exhibition explores them as a modern obsession. Over the three hundred years since their discovery in the early 1700s, the Vesuvian sites have functioned as shifting mirrors of the present, inspiring foremost artists—from Piranesi, Fragonard, Ingres, and Alma-Tadema to Duchamp, Dalí, Rothko, and Warhol—to engage with contemporary concerns in diverse media. This international loan exhibition is co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art.


Press Materials___________________________________________________

          The Last Days of Pompeii (Press Release)

          The Last Days of Pompeii (Available Images)

          The Last Days of Pompeii (Publication) 

          The Last Days of Pompeii (Related Events)

          The Last Days of Pompeii (Italian Cultural Institute) 

          The Last Days of Pompeii (Object List)