Along with his career, Andy Warhol maintains a very close relation with the fashion world and all the relative aspect of this environment. He constantly opens a discussion between the two worlds, reciprocal inspirations, overlaps, and collaborations. From its beginning, the artist works alongside with this circle, where the artist realizes his first fashion revues such as Vogue, Harper's but also Glamour. With his polaroid and in search of a global establishment, he then captures the attention of haute couture most iconic names as Yves Saint Laurent and Giorgio Armani. Without any doubts, the dominant presence of his works on the market has inspired numerous fashion designers.
During the year of 1983, the artist travels to Milan, for an exhibition named Warhol and the Italian Fashion, a retrospective reflecting the romance between the artist and fashion. A dinner follows the opening in a restaurant called El Toulà, famous and frequented by the great names of Milanese fashion. That evening, the dining room gathers numerous predominant personalities as it never did before. The celebrities show such a passion for the artist that each one receives a gifted dedicated dish. Mariuccia Mandelli gracefully sits at this prestigious table, collects porcelains, from Warhol and from Basquiat, also present at the celebration, specially dedicated at her name. Pioneer of Italian fashion but also one of the protagonists of Milan's transformation into industrial capital, which confirms the importance of her presence at this gathering.
This unique porcelain piece, presented here and named Tigar, is a tribute to the personality of this great Italian icon, full of success and satisfaction. Usually compared to her fetish animal, the panther, Warhol appropriates her image and adapts it to his imagination. The panther becomes a tiger, equally representative of the felines dominant and impulsive character.
Nowadays, Andy Warhol exhibits his work in the world's leading institutions such as the most influent museums in New York, the MoMA and The Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as the Modern Art Museum in Rio de Janeiro.