Armando Testa: The advertising! | Beatrice Brandini Blog

A special hat by Beatrice Brandini

Pippo the Hippopotamus for the Armando Testa diapers Lines advertisement.

From November 21st to May 3rd, Siena hosts a major retrospective of Armando Testa, the visionary genius who revolutionized Italian visual communication.

Armando Testa, Punt e Mes Advertising

Armando Testa, Caballero and Carmencita.

Palazzo delle Papesse in Siena hosts the exhibition: Armando Testa. Cucù – Tetè. Curated by Valentino Catricalà and Gemma De Angelis Testa, produced by Opera Laboratori in collaboration with Galleria Continua and Testa per Testa S.r.l., this wonderful retrospective brings together two hundred works, including posters, paintings, installations, photographs, audiovisual materials, and more, to celebrate Italy’s most famous advertiser, but also an artist, graphic designer, and inventor of radically new visual languages.

Armando Testa, preparatory sketches: The World of Towers from Babylon to Manhattan

Armando Testa sketch room

“Writing about Armando Testa is no easy task. What other key figure in Italian culture can be compared to him? What is Testa? Are we sure he’s just a great and brilliant advertiser? This text and this exhibition aim to undermine precisely that approach…” Valentino Catricalà.

Armando Testa, oil on canvas, projects for Agrati

Armando Testa, elephant for Pirelli

The exhibition opens on the first floor with a collection of the master’s most iconic works, such as the posters for Punt e Mes, Gotto, and The Toast of the Two Kings, all created for Carpano from 1949 to 1960. Then there are those for Borsalino and for the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Then we find ourselves in rooms dedicated to the relationship between art, industry, and technology, with posters and preparatory drawings (very rare) that perfectly interpret the historical period in which they were conceived.

Armando Testa “Animals”

Armando Testa “Animals”: The Owl, 1968

The section dedicated to painting, Testa’s first free and independent medium, is also very beautiful. Then there are the delightful characters that have become part of the collective imagination of both adults and children, like Caballero and Carmencita. The room with the “charging elephants” for the Pirelli advertisement is a wonderfully powerful and modern drawing. And then there’s the body, explored through various media: food, animals, numbers, and letters. In short, Testa’s entire astonishing universe is present. In every room, in every niche or corner, the feeling is one of pleasant amazement, works that are as moving today as they were yesterday.

A glimpse of the Armando Testa exhibition. Cuckoo – Tetè: Chair with Pencil

Armando Testa: Plywood Walrus

“After the major exhibitions dedicated to Julio Le Parc and Hugo Pratt,” explains Beppe Costa, president and CEO of Opera Laboratori, “the Armando Testa retrospective continues the process of enhancing the Palazzo delle Papesse as an exhibition center open to the intersection of languages, art, and communication. Testa is a symbol of Italian creativity, and welcoming his art to Siena means not only paying homage to a master, but also reaffirming the value of culture as a driver of innovation and participation.”

Unforgettable insights from Armando Testa

Headquarters of the Armando Testa Agency, Turin

The exhibition is truly fascinating because it celebrates an extraordinary creative force. This is evident when you see the projects with their preparatory drawings, seemingly “simple” signs, but in reality profoundly complex, modern, and innovative. These are doodles that you observe, but only after a second reading do you understand their revolutionary significance. Beautiful objects that celebrate Italian genius, which make you return home filled with enthusiasm and a desire to create.

Take your children to see this exhibition; it’s very inspiring. These signs perhaps the little ones will be able to interpret immediately and, upon returning home, rework to create something special.