Concurrent Temporary Exhibition

Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests
November 29, 2025 – April 15, 2026

Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests, Sonnabend Collection Mantova, Mantova Italy. November 29, 2025 – April 15, 2026. Photo by Giuseppe Gardella © 2025 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Mantua, Italy - The Sonnabend Collection Foundation is pleased to present Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests, an exhibition featuring 21 selected works from Warhol’s celebrated series of cinematic portraits made between 1963 and 1966. Filmed in the Factory using a 16mm Bolex camera and silent, black-and-white 100-foot reels, each Screen Test captures a sitter for exactly three minutes—the time it took the film to run through the camera.

​

Warhol invited a wide range of individuals to sit for these portraits, from cultural figures such as Allen Ginsberg, Dennis Hopper, Salvador Dalí, Susan Sontag, Bob Dylan, Marcel Duchamp, and Lou Reed to friends and everyday visitors. Shown in slow motion at 16 frames per second, the Screen Tests extend to roughly four minutes, taking on a mesmerizing, dreamlike quality.

​

Though uniform in setup, the works vary subtly in lighting, focus, and the sitter’s behavior. Some remain still, while others move or engage with the camera, revealing the unique presence and personality of each subject. Through these deceptively simple films, Warhol reinvented the traditions of portraiture and redefined the boundaries between performance and being.​

​

For more information or press inquiries, please contact the Sonnabend Collection Foundation: