Product Description
This title explores an interpretation of Andy Warhol's "The Last Supper Series". It brings together two worlds, the sacred and the secular. By showing how the sacred is manifest in advertising, it demonstrates the metaphorical power of popular imagery. Warhol bore out the proposition that an artist is essentially a "Yours faithfully". The essence of his "Last Supper series" lies in the mystery that should remain so: "mirari non rimari sapientia vera est". To scrutinize the host would be unfaithful to Christ, who said: "This is my Body". To perceive Warhol's work as simply signifying itself would be unfaithful to the most influential American artist. A case in point is "The Last Supper (Dove)": pictorial analysis proves that Leonardo's Il Cenacolo was not robbed of its sublimity. Warhol remained faithfully to it as a means of unveiling the holy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Interesting for Analysis, Near Unreadable for Writing
Check out a free copy of this work before you purchase it if you can. Either online via a major search engine or in a library of some sorts. There is good information to be had from the book, but damn if it isn't hidden under poor composition and redundancy. ... Read more

Product Description
New York City, the 1960s: Inside a ramshackle studio known as The Factory, the post-war art world encountered the industrial revolution. For more than two years, Nat Finkelstein was on the scene, documenting the explosive emergence of Pop Art, a subversive spectacle created by the constantly calculating Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol: The Factory Years is an extraordinary photographic account of the twisted, the addicted, the nameless, and the famous. As a member of the club, Finkelstein discreetly captured icons in the making, including Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Allen Ginsberg, Edie Sedgwick, and Nico, along with such legends of another era as Salvador Dali and Marcel Duchamp. And, of course, Warhol himself. Engagingly sequenced by renowned design firm Pentagram, Andy Warhol: The Factory Years features Finkelstein's seminal black-and-white photographs, in addition to several series of previously unpublished color photographs that were thought lost for the past three decades. Finkelstein accompanies these striking images with vivid memories, poetic recollections, and acerbic commentary, providing both visual and intellectual insight into the culture of The Factory. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Worth buying but only just: color photos a big plus!
It is not a little ironic that the photographic record of an artist as prolific and as wrapped up in making and taking film and photographs as Andy Warhol was suffers from a dearth of great photos of the scene of Andy Warhol, The Factory and his Superstars:For real.I mean, I would love to own a book that is just chockablock full of all of the characters, primary, secondary, tertiary and beyond who populate the pages of the many books about Andy Warhol and the Warhol Experience.Unfortunately, there just doesn't seem to be any out there.Most of the books by and about the actors in the Warhol drama are text-based with a few, often the same few, grainy, shadowy, poorly framed black & whites.This book is an attempt by one to bring together more and better photos that fans such as I desire.It is a fair effort but only just.The book is over-size or 'folio' form which is GREAT, and mostly photographs.The text is composed of an opening statement of a couple of pages of over-sized type by the author followed by lots of photographs.The essays contain some valuable information that have the ring of truth to them, but they also seem spontaneous, off-the-cuff and free associative and as a result are not easy to follow.They are more blurted out than intoned, if you get me.The book is printed in the UK on non-glossy heavy stock.I'm unsure if this was done to save money or to impart a flat, gritty, industrial feel to the photos.It is a different look than anything else out there about Warhol and I can live with it; although, I catch myself wondering what this book would look like if done on really expensive, glossy paper with top notch production values.The author explains at one point that his photos were criticized by media critics for being odd and unconventional.He states that today this is recognized as a somewhat ground-breaking and very original and excellent representation of the scene.I think that they are a bit odd and unconventional.There are some great shots there though, and the author gets some portraits of Edie Sedgewick that are heart-breakingly prescient in retrospect.There are a couple great shots of Nico too and, of course, Andy.I was pleased to see some good ones of Taylor Mead and Paul Morissey which is a refreshing change; although, I must say that it would have been cool to see how the author would have represented Andy's mother, Billy Name, and Andrea Feldman.Oh, well, I suppose one must be happy with what one can get.I believe that if you are a huge Warhol admirer such as I you would be mad to not own this.If you are curious but indifferent to Warhol and the scene, right now as I speak you can buy this book right here on Amazon for a fraction of what it is worth and you should buy it NOW.If you don't care for Andy Warhol or care about him this book will certainly not change your mind so don't bother.

new edition
the book expanded redesigned and with the addition with a complete section of color phots has been republished by canongate books ,scotland ... Read more

Product Description
Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro and Andy Warhol each significantly shaped the development of art in the twentieth century. These Modern masters are the subjects of four small books, the first volumes in a series featuring important artists in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art. Each book presents a single artist and guides readers through a dozen of his most memorable achievements. Works are reproduced in color and accompanied by informative and accessible short essays that provide background on the artworks and on the artist himself, illuminating technique, style, subject matter and significance. Written by Carolyn Lanchner, former Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum, these books are excellent resources for readers interested in the stories behind masterpieces of the Modern canon and for those who wish to understand the contributions of individual artists to the history of Modern art. This volume focuses on Warhol.Amazon.com Review
"There will always be a pre- and a post-Warhol," writesPhilippe Tretiack, "and that post-Warhol period is having difficultyestablishing itself." There also will always be people who considerAndy Warhol's work to represent the beginning of the end of seriouscultural life in America. A flagrantly commercial antihero of thegay, big-city subculture, Warhol offended in so many ways. Hischeerful, absurdist pop images of Campbell's soup cans, JackieKennedy, Marilyn Monroe, and the electric chair made serious subjectmatter with serious meaning a thing of the past. Everything Warhol didmade serious film, painting, drawing, or printmaking look slightlysilly. He flaunted his disregard for the pretensions of the fineartist, calling his studio "the Factory," churning out multiples, andpublicly insisting that his work could be fabricated by practicallyanyone (until it was pointed out to him that this would significantlylower his prices).

In an excellent essay in the front of thissmall book, Tretiack places Warhol historically and esthetically,hitting all the high points of Warhol's flamboyant career andstylishly discussing the legacy of this '60s bad boy. The rest of thebook is full of pictures--mostly Warhol's more famous images, but alsosome snapshots of Andy. Missing are a few pictures of Warhol'sgraceful, elegant shoe drawings and recipe illustrations, showing thekind of fine-art facility with which the artist began his career. Butthe rest is packed in here in all its flashy vainglory, including thegreen-tinged picture of a smiling Tricky Dick Nixon with thehand-lettered admonishment "Vote McGovern." At the end of the book area brief chronology and a list of captions for the plates.--PeggyMoorman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The breadth of Warhol's paintings
You can get a excellent sense of Warhol's progress from this book. 1962 seems to have been a decisive years. Before 1962, one can see Warhol's transition from commercial artist and early experimentalism. Beginning sometime in 1962, one sees the emergence of the well-chosen, well-executed images that Warhol is known for.

It seems helpful in understanding his growth to see some of Warhol's less appealing works. Nonetheless, with a total of about 320 pages of images, there are still plenty of Warhol's bettter works to see here.

Four high-quality, significant essays about Warhol open this book. The closing includes a chronology, a "collective portrait" consisting of short contributions from many who knew Warhol well, and "Warhol in his own words", selections that reveal how insightful yet straight-forward Warhol could be.

This seems to be the single best bible of Warhol's paintings. There is a comprehensive collection of Warhol's prints available in "Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonne: 1962-1987" which seems prettier but may suffer from excessive prettiness. Warhol's trashier aspects are not apparent, nor is his experimental reach, in the prints. Both books have their appeal, but as a one source collection of Warhol's painting and critical assessments of it this Retrospective seems unparalleled.

For a good exposure to Warhol in all his diversity, "Andy Warhol: 365 Takes" by the staff of the Andy Warhol Museum is also valuable, but to focus on the paintings, this retrospective seems ideal. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is published to accompany a major European retrospective of the work of Andy Warhol, presenting him as the most significant chronicler of the second half of the 20th century. The collection of over 220 images show how his work reflected and commented on themes in American society that were also becoming international: consumerism, mass-production, celebrity, death and disaster. In the four essays Warhol scholars propose new ways of approaching the art of this enigmatic figure. Heiner Bastian, drawing on his friendship with Warhol, traces his development from commercial graphic artist to purely autonomous artist with international status. He extends the concept of Classic Modernism to almost the end of the 20th century and shows Warhol to be a deeply moral artist. Kirk Varnedoe examines the significance of Warhol's first exhibition of 1962 of the series of "Campbells Soup Cans", exploring the themes of the multiple. Donna De Salvo takes the concept of the "afterimage" in Warhol's work as a starting point for considering his painterly strategy.She shows how Warhol had a very subtle awareness of the surface in contemporary culture, tracing this back to his work for advertising agencies. Peter-Claus Schuster makes a resonant comparison between the work of Warhol and Goya, both depicted atrocity. Warhol's " Death and Disaster" sequences can be seen not as depictions of a callous, unjust society, but rather as a critique of the media message and the resulting desensitization of public consciousness. Ultimately, however, he warns against any simplistic reductions and poposes Andy Warhol to be a complex mixture of victim, superstar and redeemer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Complete Warhol
This is the catalogue for a Warhol exhibition that was held in London and Los Angeles some years ago. It is a good and comprehensive introduction to his paintings, indispensable to the understanding of the most famous pop artist. I have always been skeptic about Warhol's claim to be a great painter, seeing him more as a manipulator of ideas, however brilliant and influential. This book slightly changed my opinion in that it shows what a master of representation he was, his ability to use color as a means of communication, the way he forces us to look at reality in a different way through mundane themes, celebrities, current affairs raised to the status of icons of our society. The book is arranged chronologically, underlining the different series the artist became famous for.
Heiner Bastian is a respected dealer and curator and is very knowledgeable on his subject.I do not give it five stars because the quality of the images could have been improved. ... Read more

Product Description
One of the most eclectic, celebrated and influential figures of the second half of the twentieth century, Andy Warhol is an emblem of American culture of the sixties and seventies. The Andy Warhol Show sheds light not only on the revolutionary role that Warhol played in art but also his influence on graphic design, communication and fashion. Introduced by the editors Gianni Mercurio and Daniela Morera, the exhibition catalogue includes new essays by Bruno Bischofberger, Victor Bokris, Ronald Feldman, Glenn ‘O Brien and a critical essay by Demetrio Paparoni.
The main nucleus of works reproduced in this striking catalogue is impressive: in addition to the 200 paintings which span his entire career, the book showcases a rich collection of photographs, graphic works and drawings, including Warhol’s early illustrations for fashion magazines. The fundamental themes of the Warhol aesthetic can be seen here in some of their most representative examples: the beauty-success-power myth (portraits of Marilyn, Liz Taylor, Elvis Presley, Jaqueline Kennedy, Mao); consumerism (Campbell’s Soup, Brillo Box, Dollar Sign); advertising, serial repetition of an image, the tragic symbols of catastrophe and death (Suicide, Electric Chair); portraits of artists, dealers, friends such as Leo Castelli, Keith Haring, Dennis Hopper; the passage through abstract art (Camouflage, Shadows); collaborations with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente; and The Last Supper, Warhol’s final series of works. ... Read more

Product Description
Bob Colacello presents an insider's look at the man and phenomenon that was Warhol. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Decoding the Pop Madonna
This book is like a big box of candy--gossipy and chummy--compulsively readable and bittersweet.

Colacello was a top Warhol insider--for a while--so he was in a good position to give us a first-hand account of what it was like. However he isnt an art critic or art historian, and he's not an artist. So don't expect a lot of analysis into Warhol's art.

This book is more about what it was like to live and work with Andy Warhol. At least what it was like for Bob Colacello. For the most part Colcello seems to remember that and doesn't do a lot of sideline psychoanalysis...for the most part. He draws his conclusions, like the rest of us, and, like the rest of us, tells us probably more about himself than he does about Warhol.

Other people are impossible to know. Probably the best we can do is report as directly as possible what we *see*--without commentary. What we see, all by itself, is commentary enough.

Perhaps Warhol understood this better than any other major artist. It may very well be the key to his oeuvre--the films and paintings, the books and interviews that all seem to be about either nothing, or whatever one makes of them.

It's a lesson that Colacello seems to have drawn from to write "Holy Terror," which is refreshingly free from a lot of the usual compromising motivations of first-person, I-was-there books of this sort: the judgment and self-aggrandizement of the author, and the demonizing of the (usually) dead and now voiceless and therefore defenseless subject.

These sorts of books are usually written, to one degree or another, for revenge...and profit. Indeed, at the very end of this lengthy volume, Colacello acknowledges that his original purpose in writing *Holy Terror* was to "liberate" himself from Andy Warhol. Fortunately, this ulterior motive comes through only rarely, and mostly and most strongly in the concluding chapters, where Colacello tries to sum up Andy Warhol for us.

Colacello has some axes to grind. He felt underappreciated by his boss, for whom he labored to the point of physical and psychological collapse, for thirteen years. He ghostwrote the books for which Warhol was given credit, made Warhol's "Interview" magazine a significant cultural signpost, and accompanied Warhol on what seems to have been a non-stop rollercoaster of all-night parties, openings, and get-togethers with the rich and famous. He served his boss as assistant, commissions pimp, social crutch, and, on many occasions, a shoulder to cry on. And all of this for relatively little financial reward--and even less recognition.

On the other hand, Colacello does seem to remember--even if only in passing and primarily by implication--that without Warhol he and so many others who lived, worked, and complained about the artist would not be the chroniclers, critics, and footnotes to art history and American culture that they are.

Warhol, who, according to Colacello, expressed himself primarily in a series of "gees, umms, oh reallys" comes out of this biographical autopsy relatively intact--by which I mean, pretty much as much of an enigma as before. And inasmuch as this is the case, it is to Colacello's credit.

More than perhaps any other artist, Warhol was a blank screen. It's what he aspired to and what he to a large degree succeeded in achieving. He reflected the people and events around him. Peel the reflective part off a mirror or the paint off a canvas and what have you got?

You cant get the answer you really want from Mona Lisa by asking her. Or by scraping away at her vague smile. There isnt anything underneath. That's the mystery, the horror, the beauty, the holy joke of it all.

Not that "bitchy"
I found this book on the shelf recently unread and found it, after the annoying first chapter on Bob quitting, a rather quick read for the length. While there are stories about famous people, I didn't find the tone mean and the stories about the famous people played to make them sound awful. A lot of time has passed since the book was written and certainly since the events described took place. The names of certain socialites discussed at length will mean nothing to most readers.

In terms of the profile of Warhol, it's fairly rewarding in terms of how he managed people, his projects, how he operated socially and yes what some of his eccentric habits were. But once again, this is more 'tell it like it is' than bitter and negative.

Engaging and disturbing
I did not intend to read this book.I read the first chapter because my wife told me to, and couldn't put it down.The book is like watching a train wreck.I kept hoping that somebody would stand up and inject some sanity into the lives of these people, but they just kept heading toward disaster and oblivion.While I found that the gossipy nature of the book get in the way of the story, I must admit that Bob Colacello made that time in that place seem both glamorous and horrible.I think it is worth a read, if for no other reason than to be able to sit back and say "I'm so glad my life isn't like that!".

Ages well
I didn't intend to reread this book, but I opened it while searching for an obscure New York address and didn't put it down again until I'd finished reading every page. When it first came out, I remember critics mostly tsk-tsking Colacello because they seemed to think he'd gotten to the place he was through Warhol and no doubt he did...What I failed to notice when the book was first published, was how Colacella and every single "Warhol" person who's written a book had a nervous breakdown as they were spinning (or trying to spin) out of his orbit. I want to read the book that tells WHY these intelligent creative people threw themselves so totally into Warhol's world...a world that couldn't have existed without them.....All I can say is, if your intent is to try and understand Warhol, then Bob Colacello's book is the absolute best take...besides yourself.

Royal Crown Cola
Bob Colacello put all his unpublished Warhol writing projects into a cocktail shaker and added some ice. The result is this frothy, gossip ridden, whiskey sour. A 504 page, tall drink that doesn't get any sweeter as you suck it down. The anecdotes about Imelda Marcos, Truman Capote, Farah Diba make it seem like the 70's took place on another planet. It's a fun read and I laughed out loud quite a few times. But one get's the feeling that this book was written as revenge on Warhol for the social abuse that Colacello "suffered" during the years they worked together. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Tracing Warhol's origins as the sickly child of Ruthenian immigrants in working-class Pittsburgh to his transformation into New York's dark prince of Pop and finally into the world's most successful 'business artist', "Andy Warhol "Giant" Size" provides an appropriately larger-than-life look at the celebrated artist's career. Cultural critic Dave Hickey provides a compelling essay on Warhol's geek-to-guru evolution while chapter openers by Warhol friends and insiders give special insight into the way the enigmatic artist led his life and made his art. More than 2,000 illustrations culled from rarely seen archival material, documentary photography, and artwork not only provide a full picture of the artist's life but a telling look at late twentieth-century popular culture. Warhol's little-explored early career as a successful commercial illustrator and designer, his importance as a co-creator of the Pop movement, his midcareer switch to filmmaker and manager of the Velvet Underground, his founding of Interview magazine, and his bid for the hearts and pocketbooks of the high-flying glitterati are shown throughout this stunning new volume. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Terrific Picture Book
Lots of stories. A great deal. A really neat visual insight into the world of Andy Warhol. Good price too.

ohhhh!!!
this review comes from a true warhol junkie. i drove five hours to pittsburgh once just to see one of his films(and don't regret a minute or a penny of it). i've read quite a few books on andy and was excited to see this one and at a much cheaper price than when it first came out. i haven't looked at it all yet, just purchased today but i have to say i was really expecting just a little bit more than what i've seen so far. but, what i've seen has been great. i guess it's the lack of much text that really seems a real drawback to me, but in lieu of that it offers very much as far as the visual aspects. most, if not all, of his major works are represented but one has to have a little more cultural insight to realy comprehend what's going on here. like for instance, who are all these other people and what's going on with them. i, as an insider of sorts, know so it's cool for me, but i'm sorry for anyone else who doesn't know the whole story. so, to be brief, this is a cool book with tons of artwork reproduced and gads of photos but is probably not a good beginning book for the uninitiated. it's more of a companion piece to fill in the blanks left by the other works. as a starter for the warhol cult prospective initiate i would highly recommend "popism" by warhol and pat hackett and for a more complete story than that, including tons of artwork and photos, "warhol" by david bourdain. the latter tells a more complete story since "popism" leaves off in the 60's(albeit andy's halcyon days). those two are indispensable. this one is just a bonus but hey, it's a warhol book so not bad at all. campbell's soup forever!

Giant Warhol For Less Than Half the Price!
This is the "less expensive" version of 2006s //Andy Warhol Giant Size// originally published at $125.00. For less than half price, you can still get the entirety of the original edition and still in hardcover. this is an overview of Warhol's life, told through thousands of images, from his own pictures and art, to the pieces of his daily life that he never threw out. Even being the "little" version of the original, it still tops the scale at eight pounds, so not something you'll through in your bag to read on the way to work. There are a number of essays beginning each section, and quotes from Warhol are salted throughout. For those Warhol fans that passed on the original, this should be a must have. It is expertly packaged and organized, and will keep one busy for hours just flipping the pages and exploring the influences on Warhol, and the influences he had on the world. ... Read more

Product Description
Count Basie, Tchaikovsky, Aretha Franklin, Lou Reed, Diana
Ross, John Lennon, and the Rolling Stones all had their music
promoted by Andy Warhol s record covers. This catalogue
raisonné reproduces the fifty covers, front and back, designed
over four decades that bear Warhol s unmistakable imprint. It
also includes over 100 additional illustrations, featuring related
works by Warhol, photographs of performances as well as
documentary images identifying his visual sources. Paul
Maréchal explores Warhol s creative process, his relationship
with artists and his fascination with all kinds of music. The
range of music represented through these record covers, from
jazz to classical, and from rock to soul, reveals the breadth of
Warhol s musical tastes and his extraordinary ability to
combine his artistic vision with the music and the recording
artist. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Andy Warhol Record Covers
I thought i had most of the Andy Warhol LP's in my collection until I got this book. Amazing pictorial and beautiful book. Now it will take me another 10 years to get the other half. Brilliant!!

Unexpected Warhol
Warhol's cover for the first Velvet Underground album is famous. Same for the album with the real zipper he made for the Stones' Sticky Fingers lp. This book shows that Warhol made a lot of less spectacular, but still great record covers before and after. For me the jazz and classical lp covers he did were a big and pleasant surprise. The book gives all the background information you'd want, which makes this a great book for cover lovers and for art lovers. Perfectly printed in a size just a bit smaller than the actual covers.

Superb book
very instructive - recommended for disk collectors.
Nice jacket, as Warhol used to do! ... Read more

Product Description
Artist, filmmaker, writer, rock producer, publisher and the leading exponent of Pop Art, Andy Warhol used his canvasses of dollar bills, soup cans, disasters and celebrities to erase the distinction between high and popular culture. Based on the author's intimate knowledge and interviews with family, friends, lovers, business associates, and enemies, this definitive biography reveals Warhol's complex and controversial life. 53 photos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Thoroughly Researched
This book covers every period in Andy Warhol's life with great detail including his childhood, his personal life and his career as an artist, filmmaker, publisher and celebrity.

Victor Bockris interviewed many members of Warhol's family, friends and teachers to tell the story of his impoverished youth in Pittsburgh, his time in college at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, working as a commerical artist in New York in the 1950s and his career as an artist.

It includes detailed descriptions from mulitple perspectives of the creation of some of Warhol's greatest works such as the film Empire and his book a: A Novel. There's also many quotes from Warhol himself, giving the reader some idea of how Warhol viewed his own work.

A good, not great, biography
Now out in a new edition, Victor Bockris' WARHOL is a very solidly written and researched biography.In particular, the first half creates an extremely detailed portrait of Warhol's Pittsburgh youth; this adds a tremendous amount of context and depth to Warhol's own work, and the meanings and symbolisms of that work will gain new clarity after reading through some of Bockris' book.

Unfortunately, the book gets less detailed and more gossipy later on - Warhol's many flaws are underlined again and again, but Warhol surrounded himself with other highly creative people who launched interesting careers of their own - Paul Morrissey and Lou Reed both spring to mind - and Bockris does little or no investigation of Warhol's influence upon them, and any actual ideas just seem to get lost here amid the varied bits of gossip.

-David Alston

Often Interesting
This biography is extremely interesting at times.I had never read a Warhol biography before I read this, and it provided a lot of great details, especially involving his early life.
The problem, though, is that it seems that sex seems to permeate everything.Perhaps Warhol was a man obsessed with it, as the author seems to suggest, but does that really call for the explicit details of his sexual activities to be included?Seriously....does it?I think not.After a particularly detailed description, I found myself thinking, "Ok, I get it, the man had a foot fetish.Can't we just leave it at that?"I must add that I am no Puritan by any stretch of the imagination, but there is something quite unsettling about Warhol to begin with (at least for me), and when you add sexual detail to it, it just gets....icky.If you don't have a problem with this, though (I'm sure some people might even especially want to read it with these details included), go for it.It is highly informative, and Warhol was nothing if not compelling.

Warhol as creep?
Bockris was a friend of Warhol, at least for several years. He shares a lot of detail but what seems to stand out in this biography in particular is that:

* Warhol had a lot of boyfriends, none for long, and he was ridiculously jealous.
* Warhol used people no end and generally didn't pay those who worked for him.

So I was left at the end with a decidedly negative impression of Warhol.

I'm suspicious. It didn't seem that Bockris explained how someone so creepy was able to get some many talented people to work with and hang out for him. All to be a part of the Warhol scene? For expectations of fame, money, connections? I don't know. I do know companies with a little liked leader. Still, it left me wondering if Bockris had something in for Warhol. I don't doubt there's some truth in Bockris' account of Warhol with boyfriends and assistants but I can't tell how much. Instead of resolving who Warhol was, this book makes me also wonder who Bockris is and leaves me seeking other books to learn more about Warhol.

Invaluable
The first half of this book is invaluable for the intimate infomation that it gives on Andy Warhol's early years. It is very sensitively written and thoroughly engaging, though the latter years are sort of run through at the speed of sound. That would be the only criticsm I have of this book but you can flesh out the facts (from Andy's view) by getting a copy of the Andy Warhol Diaries. Otherwise it's a really great book. ... Read more

Product Description
Artist, filmmaker, writer, rock producer, publisher and the leading exponent of Pop Art, Andy Warhol used his canvasses of dollar bills, soup cans, disasters and celebrities to erase the distinction between high and popular culture. Based on the author's intimate knowledge and interviews with family, friends, lovers, business associates, and enemies, this definitive biography reveals Warhol's complex and controversial life. 53 photos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Thoroughly Researched
This book covers every period in Andy Warhol's life with great detail including his childhood, his personal life and his career as an artist, filmmaker, publisher and celebrity.

Victor Bockris interviewed many members of Warhol's family, friends and teachers to tell the story of his impoverished youth in Pittsburgh, his time in college at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, working as a commerical artist in New York in the 1950s and his career as an artist.

It includes detailed descriptions from mulitple perspectives of the creation of some of Warhol's greatest works such as the film Empire and his book a: A Novel. There's also many quotes from Warhol himself, giving the reader some idea of how Warhol viewed his own work.

A good, not great, biography
Now out in a new edition, Victor Bockris' WARHOL is a very solidly written and researched biography.In particular, the first half creates an extremely detailed portrait of Warhol's Pittsburgh youth; this adds a tremendous amount of context and depth to Warhol's own work, and the meanings and symbolisms of that work will gain new clarity after reading through some of Bockris' book.

Unfortunately, the book gets less detailed and more gossipy later on - Warhol's many flaws are underlined again and again, but Warhol surrounded himself with other highly creative people who launched interesting careers of their own - Paul Morrissey and Lou Reed both spring to mind - and Bockris does little or no investigation of Warhol's influence upon them, and any actual ideas just seem to get lost here amid the varied bits of gossip.

-David Alston

Often Interesting
This biography is extremely interesting at times.I had never read a Warhol biography before I read this, and it provided a lot of great details, especially involving his early life.
The problem, though, is that it seems that sex seems to permeate everything.Perhaps Warhol was a man obsessed with it, as the author seems to suggest, but does that really call for the explicit details of his sexual activities to be included?Seriously....does it?I think not.After a particularly detailed description, I found myself thinking, "Ok, I get it, the man had a foot fetish.Can't we just leave it at that?"I must add that I am no Puritan by any stretch of the imagination, but there is something quite unsettling about Warhol to begin with (at least for me), and when you add sexual detail to it, it just gets....icky.If you don't have a problem with this, though (I'm sure some people might even especially want to read it with these details included), go for it.It is highly informative, and Warhol was nothing if not compelling.

Warhol as creep?
Bockris was a friend of Warhol, at least for several years. He shares a lot of detail but what seems to stand out in this biography in particular is that:

* Warhol had a lot of boyfriends, none for long, and he was ridiculously jealous.
* Warhol used people no end and generally didn't pay those who worked for him.

So I was left at the end with a decidedly negative impression of Warhol.

I'm suspicious. It didn't seem that Bockris explained how someone so creepy was able to get some many talented people to work with and hang out for him. All to be a part of the Warhol scene? For expectations of fame, money, connections? I don't know. I do know companies with a little liked leader. Still, it left me wondering if Bockris had something in for Warhol. I don't doubt there's some truth in Bockris' account of Warhol with boyfriends and assistants but I can't tell how much. Instead of resolving who Warhol was, this book makes me also wonder who Bockris is and leaves me seeking other books to learn more about Warhol.

Invaluable
The first half of this book is invaluable for the intimate infomation that it gives on Andy Warhol's early years. It is very sensitively written and thoroughly engaging, though the latter years are sort of run through at the speed of sound. That would be the only criticsm I have of this book but you can flesh out the facts (from Andy's view) by getting a copy of the Andy Warhol Diaries. Otherwise it's a really great book. ... Read more

Product Description
Andy Warhol (1928–1987) is arguably the most iconic figure in twentieth century art, an enigmatic personality who not only altered the definition of art itself but also in his wake left a vast and staggeringly complex record of his activities. Warhol’s archive consists not only of his artworks but also 1,500 cardboard boxes, flat files, and trunks filled with source material, memorabilia, correspondence, and junk mail. When the catalogue raisonné is complete, it will constitute an indisputable record of the artist’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures — some 15,000 works produced by the artist between 1948 and 1987, the year of his death.

Volume 2 documents the artist’s paintings, sculpture, and installations made between 1964 and 1969, the important period known as "The Factory Years," when Warhol began to acquire Pop Art fame as well as a cadre of collaborators and hangers-on — all of which made "The Factory" into one of the most mythologized artist’s studios ever, and Warhol’s work at this time emblematic of his career. This volume documents 23 series and more than 1,400 individual works, including the well-known series Thirteen Most Wanted Men, the box sculptures, approximately 300 works in the Jackie series, and the 1964 and 1964–65 Flowers series, among others. As in Volume 1, Volume 2 includes a fascinating collection of source material — in particular rare studio photographs taken by Billy Name-Linich, who became the Factory’s first de facto photographic historian.

In this volume editors Georg Frei and Neil Printz focus on Warhol’s serial production, analyzing the evolution of Warhol’s working methods and the growing relationship between Warhol’s exhibitions and his studio production. They establish a chronology for the works of this period, many of which have been difficult to locate and date due to their seriality. Their text provides both a compelling overview and unparalleled detail of an endlessly fascinating life and career.

The project is co-sponsored by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in New York and Thomas Ammann Fine Art in Zurich. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

myandywarhol.com
The project is co-sponsored by two of the largest dealers in Warhol's work. The editors have no first hand knowledge of Warhol's working methods and although in this raisonne they claim to refer to Warhol's inner circle, in most cases they do not. Great pictures though!
Have a look at the statements written by those closest to the artist before making such an expensive purchase.

http://www.myandywarhol.eu/my/authentication.asp ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Try Thinking of This Like Jane Fonda Joining F.T.A.
I bought this book as a political act, if an attempt to relate on a personal level can be considered political.I was living in Minneapolis at the time and went to a major chain bookstore in the city of Saint Paul toorder it, in a reversal of my usual (new wave vs. old hat) stereotypes ofthose two cities.If anyone considers the cover too shocking to reveal tointernet shoppers, be glad that the back cover is not what is shown.Mostof the book is about male sexual objects, and the back cover has malethighs forming a V with no attempt to hide what Rilke called"manhood's crest" in a famous poem about an archaic torso ofApollo.(The poem appears in 20 German Poets, translated by WalterKaufmann,p. 221.)Plate 33 in Andy's "Paintings of the 1970s"has six repetitions of what appears to me to be the display of a fist as asexual object, given its proximity to what is typical in this book.Whathelped me most to gain my appreciation for the contents of this book wasthe text at the beginning, which begins with a direct Andy Warholquotation, "Sex is So Abstract."Some of the information in thetext is extracted from a book by Bob Colacello called "Holy Terror:Andy Warhol Close-Up."On the actual quality of the artwork, the textsays, "His secret is his profound and enduring aestheticism, . . .burning with a hard, gemlike flame, but veiling this taste in a cool,laconic front of Coke bottles, soup cans," and the bodies in thisbook.The final page of text before the drawings explains Warhol's use offingerpainting on Polaroid photographs, which appear to me on Plates 44,45, and 46 to be the artist's way of searching for erogenous zones.On apolitical level, Jane Fonda must have thought that F.T.A. shows would beentertaining, as well as conveying a particular message about militaristicthinking.Whoever thought of calling those shows "F.T.A." musthave realized that the best communication involves some form of ecstaticflow, which gives people something somewhere between what people are usedto and what they would really desire.Art stands up under this kind ofscrutiny, while politics might mean getting involved with the kind ofpeople who would like to treat it as unmentionable.This book seems to beabout art, but writing helpful reviews may involve a lot more politics thanshoppers would want to know.Don't let me tell you where this book doesn'tbelong.

you need this on your coffee table
sorry that i'm reviewing this.I'm somewhere between the gay and the artist...but it's wonderful to flip through.I didn't pay as much as most and am very happy with about $32.00 ... Read more

Product Description
Big art for little hands, these enchanting activity books allow young artists to explore the world's masterpieces on their own terms and with plenty of space to color outside the lines. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Disappointed
I was disappointed in all of the Prestel art color books.Only partial pictures to color..more for young child. ... Read more

Product Description
An early Artist Book containing 8 pop-up/out images as follows: Pop-up castle; Harmonic accordion; Pop-up airplane; Paper disc on spring with "the Chelsea Girls" in type; an illustrated dodecahedron attached by string; 45 RPM flexi-disc recording by Lou Reed (Velvet Underground); large fold-out Warhol photograph; Pop-up Hunts Tomato Paste can; sheet of perforated tabs; Balloon. ... Read more

Product Description
After 32 Soup Cans, neither America nor the art world would ever be the same. Gary Indiana offers a witty and opinionated biography of a momentous work of art--and its deeply troubled creator.

In the summer of 1962, Andy Warhol unveiled 32 Soup Cans in his first solo exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles--and sent the art world reeling. The responses ran from incredulity to outrage; the poet Taylor Mead described the exhibition as "a brilliant slap in the face to America." The exhibition put Warhol on the map--and transformed American culture forever. Almost single-handedly, Warhol had collapsed the centuries-old distinction between "high" and "low" culture, and created a new and radically modern aesthetic.

In Andy Warhol and the Can That Sold the World, the dazzlingly versatile critic Gary Indiana draws on interviews with many members of Warhol's Factory, as well as his own personal recollections of Warhol himself, to tell the story of the genesis and impact of this iconic work of art. With energy, wit, and tremendous perspicacity, Indiana recovers the exhilaration and controversy of the Pop Art Revolution--and the brilliant, tormented, and profoundly narcissistic figure at its vanguard. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The Can and the Swirly
"The Can" is often used as slang for the toilet and that is where Mr. Indiana believes Warhol's success ultimately led - to the flushing of American culture into the sewer of celebrity and consumerism.Well perhaps not a full flush, but Mr. Indiana convincingly argues that Warhol's "Cans" gave American culture at least a swirly leading to a paradigm shift away from cultural recognition based on issues of substance and merit and toward recognition based on fickle perceptions of personal presentation (and public drama) played-out through commodity-centered capitalism.

Here is the great paradox though - and Mr. Indiana's through-going critique examines these issues head-on - Warhol "achieved" celebrity because of the substance of his innovative ideas about art (which happen to be about the insubstantiality of what constitutes as art) and not necessarily the mileu nor the public persona that he fostered: "Warhol was the protean maker of meaningful images remarkable for their apparent meaninglessness (p. 90)."

While one might quibble with the inferred notion that American culture is or ever was a meritocracy, and to his credit the author deftly avoids characterizing the driving forces of American culture before the "Cans," Instead Mr. Indiana places us directly in the tidy yet tumultuous bowl of the Abstract Expressionists: "The rationale for a hierarchy of aesthetic pleasure was that some art was ennobling and other art coarsening (p. 62)."Mr. Indiana shines here - not since Tom Wolfe's The Painted Veil (1975?) has any author measured the trough and crest of the AbEx's Artworld so astutely - locating Warhol's "Cans" at the vanguard of a leveling and democratizing art movement: "The Soup Can effect was not to rescue American banalities from banality, but to give banality itself value (p. 91)."(Consider The Painted Veil a primer.)

And to top it all off Mr. Indiana's clean, clear, and insightful prose are a fast-read.How fast - you might ask - 15 minutes fast?Nope, putting aside the car crash like reflexive judgments about the purported vacuousness of America's current mash-up of celebrity and consumer culture, what really swirls out the other end of Mr. Indiana's fine work is a smart, must read, art historical analysis.If you read only one book about Warhol - this is the one!Mr. Indiana's fine book breaks from Warhol's dictum to "always leave them wanting less."

Key to any arts collection
Andy Warhol and the Can That Sold the World tells of the first solo exhibition of Warhol's works in Los Angeles in 1962, the Campbell's Soup cans, and considers their origins and Warhol's early years. In silk-screening an ordinary object, Warhol rose to fame and fostered a new area for the arts: Andy Warhol and the Can That Sold the World is more than just another Warhol expose; it's a survey of a new movement, and is key to any arts collection.

The significance of the can
Andy Warhol's soup cans are a symbol of the pop art revolution and this small 155 page book gives a brief biography of Andy Warhol and of the US art world post WWII. It is done in simple enough terms that most can understand the philosophy behind both the art movements and the swirl that enveloped Warhol's life.
There are some overstatements, such as Warhol's upbringing-visits to Greek Catholic church rituals and icons provided the inspiration for his portraits of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe.
Warhol's lifestyle, his relationship with his mother, with whom he lived most of his life are covered. Comparisons are made of him and other modern artists such as Rauschenerg. Of course the main emphasis is on the significance of his soup cans; but the party and celebrity scene are covered as well.
The major shortcoming with the book and that was probably as a cost cutting measure is that there are absolutely no pictures. This could have been an extremely instructional and informative book if there would have been some illustrations. It seems hard to imagine an art book that lacks art. ... Read more

Product Description
Painter, filmmaker, photographer, philosopher, all-round celebrity, Andy Warhol is an outstanding cultural icon. He revolutionised art by bringing to it images from popular culture - such as the Campbell's soup can and Marilyn Monroe's face - while his studio, the Factory, where his free-spirited cast of 'superstars' mingled with the rich and famous, became the place of origin for every groundswell shaping American culture. In many ways he can be seen as the precursor to today's 'celebrity artists' such as Tracey Emin and Damian Hurst. But what of the man behind the white wig and dark glasses?Amazon.com Review
Do a faithful rendering of a soup can, a silk-screened photograph of a starlet, or a film of an empty chair constitute works of art? They do, poet and critic Wayne Koestenbaum ably demonstrates, if their author was Andy Warhol.

Warhol, who once observed that in time everyone would be famous for 15 minutes, himself earned early fame "as artist and whirlwind, as impresario and irritant." That fame endured over a career that stretched over four decades, as does his influence, even in some unexpected quarters: "Martha Stewart owes a lot to Andy Warhol," Koestenbaum volunteers. But Warhol, Koestenbaum argues, was much more than an artist. He helped shape the popular culture of his day; he launched the careers of dozens of musicians and artists; he revolutionized interior design, making his studio, the Factory, "an ambient artwork"; and he used art as a way of exploring matters of life, death, sexuality, and group behavior. He was, in short, a self-made phenomenon, an odd American success story.

The price for that success was high, Koestenbaum writes: the controversies Warhol inspired did not always serve him well, his associates had a habit of dying young, and he himself survived an assassination attempt that gave his later work an air of being "bulletins from the afterlife." This slender biography tells all those stories very well, and students of art and contemporary culture will learn much from it. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

A Delight
This is one of my very favorite books. Wayne Kostenbaum's trademark rococo prose enlightens and delights. Clearly enraptured with his subject, he pulls out all the stops: free-associative, linguistically complex interpretations of Warhol's subconscious motivations and sexual neuroses abound. I cheerfully allow the author every metaphorical , grammatical, and Freudian excess, because here, at last, is someone writing about the 20th Century's most notorious and influential artist as if he were human. Significantly, Kostenbaum ushers the reader into an intimate, reverent viewing of the several important, rarely seen, and shamefully under-appreciated films Warhol made the 60s. You will either love this book, and want to revisit it again and again, or loathe it and not even be able to finish it. And, I bet those of you in the latter category are not all that engaging in flirty conversation over an after-dinner drink.

Perverted
I think that Wayne did a humiliating job with this book.He mostly focused on the [...] things that Warhol did in his lifetime.You know what i think, i think that Wayne had a crush on Andy himself, because the are both[...]and Wayne seems to like to talk about Andy's [...]

Horrible
There is no other word capable of describing how utterly pointless, random, and pretentiously written this book is.Wayne Koestenbaum has produced the single worst biography I have ever read.Not only is the writing style painful and full of semi-fancy language used as a subsitute for content, but the book skips over major parts of Warhol's career, concentrating instead on his many movies.After mentioning the Velvet Underground, Koestenbaum writes "Their music has many admirers, but it may be the aspect of Warhol's world with which I have least sympathy, and so I will beg off any attempt at analysis."The utter ridiculousness of this sentence speaks for itself.

One of the most infuriating things about this book is that Koestenbaum repeatedly attempts to make connections between Warhol's works that do not exist, and to analyze his art in ways that don't make sense.

Do not make the same mistake I did and waste time and money on this book.

A gorgeous, innovative work
As a Warhol scholar, and someone who has read dozens of books and essays about him, I would heartily recommend this as an _addition_ to the other works.It's not really a biography in the traditional sense at all, and it certainly shouldn't be the first or only thing you read.

If you prefer a clinical, detached, "just the facts, ma'am"approach - skip this.If you are terrified by 20th century philosophy and psychoanalysis - skip this.If you find it easier to disparage strawman concepts like "postmodernism" rather than actually reading and thinking about continental philosophy (yes, I know it's difficult) - skip this.And judging from the reviews, if you're terribly uncomfortable with sexual themes or "swishiness" in art or writing - forget it.

The book is excellent.The prose is often rich and compelling - my copy is dogeared from all the passages I've marked - and the philosophical and psychoanalytic themes, while not developed, can be very suggestive.Koestenbaum has an excellent reading of many of the films - perhaps the most important and underexamined aspect of his work.Warhol's art is certainly not reduced to postmodernist cliches (as it has been so often elsewhere) nor is it reduced to being "about" his sexual identity.In a striking change, Warhol is not considered as a celebrity or a monster, but like the frail yet determined individual he was, the complex and multifaceted life he led, and the gorgeous, troubling, powerful art he produced.If you don't know anything about Warhol, if you've haven't seen much of his work or any of his films, don't start with this book - you'll be confused and dissappointed.But if you already think you know all about Warhol, and you read this book -slowly - while looking at his work, I think you've find it an incredibly helpful guide.

For real reviews, ...read Hal Foster's review in the London Review of Books

A Repetitive Artist
Frankly, I didn't know very much about Andy Warhol until I read this book.I learned how sexual and abstract (to use one of his favorite words) he really was.The book is a nice overview.It makes me want to learn more about him and see more of his work.There is a wonderful source reference at the end of the book for anyone who may want to continue research and study of WARHOL. He definitely made a mark in the art world for the 20th Century..... ... Read more

Product Description
Business art is the step that comes after Art, Andy Warhol once observed, of his career trajectory; "I started as a commercial artist, and I want to finish as a business artist." In all of his work as an artist, filmmaker, director of the Factory, band manager, magazine publisher and television entrepreneur, Warhol willfully disrupted and dismantled the line between art and commerce, terminally collapsing the values of art at the midcentury by brazenly asserting that "Good business is the best art." Warhol began his career as a commercial designer, achieving commendations from the Art Director's Club and the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and first published his art in popular magazines such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and the New Yorker; his naming of the his workplace as a "Factory" was an overt declaration of the new American art as a continuation of (Henry) Fordist assembly-line production. Andy Warhol Enterprises examines Warhol's complex and multifarious relationship to commerce in both his work and life, from his highly successful career as a commercial artist to his reign as a cultural tastemaker in the 1980s. The catalogue features a new essay by renowned scholar Thomas Crow and an interview with Vincent Fremont, one of Warhol's close associates, which further illuminate aspects of Warhol's critical engagement with the commercial market. ... Read more

Product Description
This catalog accompanying an exciting new exhibition reveals
the myriad ways Warhol immersed himself in the music of his
time. Tracing back to Warhol s introduction to music through
the musical comedies, songs, and soundtracks of his youth,
the book opens with Warhol s portraits of the great films stars
of his childhood. As the fascinating essays collected in this
volume discuss, Warhol s renowned portraits of pop music
icons such as Mick Jagger, Debbie Harry, and Grace Jones
are just one manifestation of his interest in music. Warhol
collaborated with choreographer Merce Cunningham, served
as producer for the Velvet Underground, incorporated music
into his films, produced video-clips, designed dozens of record
albums, filmed live concerts, and created multimedia spectacles.
Although never a musician himself, Warhol appropriated the
imagery of a pop icon for some of his most arresting and
haunting self portraits. Designed to echo the music industry s
most recognizable emblem the album cover this dynamic
book includes more than 350 illustrations, offering a refreshing
new way to appreciate the talent and evolution of an artist
who mirrored society s ever-changing tastes and interests. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

More More More!!!
Yes! I want Andy Warhol Giant-Sized, but this is probably the next best thing!A great big book, covered in silver mylar - 10x10, it's also too heavy to lug around.Yet I was thrilled to find something with LARGE LUSH PRINTS of Andy's work.The author gives a full and thorough background on Andy's involvement in the commercial element of illustrating for the music industry.It's all very good.The best part is, of course, the paintings and prints!

Scaling through Warhol at bookstores and libraries may only give you poor copies of these same images...Which is not how they were meant to be seen.To really appreciate the graphic color and idiosyncrasy of Warhol's work, it has to be BIG.The multiple images of Elvis are like a multiple... (YOU know!)

Warhol was such a versatile creator! It's amazing to see the shifts he discovered here, working through his different styles of presentation.This book shows him at the height of his fun...Working with celebrities in the music business, how his own business evolved from doing simple line drawings for albums in the 50's, to the silkscreens of Judy Garland and Liza Minelli; a full chapter on his sponsoring of the Velvet Underground, and on to individuals (Michael Jackson and Prince) and groups like the Rolling Stones.

Hmmm... I'm disappointed to think somehow Jim Morrison and David Bowie were overlooked by Warhol.I don't understand how that happened.Here you will see lots of photos of Jagger feigning to be Morrison; ironic.Something comes through in the paintings of Jagger, using the same familiar poses we know from Morrison's photos...Only there is something not-so-sexy here. Jagger comes across as looking almost desperate, somewhat menacing and manipulative. Morrison would have been a much better subject by far!But that is by no means the fault of the artist!I think Warhol captured Jagger's soul, and seeing his paintings cannot help one from making these contrasts.

This book also includes cover illustrations for Andy's magazine, INTERVIEW.These are also dazzling - duo images of Debbie Harry, the way the colors are layered in the many various double portraits are both breathtaking and polarizing.The cover paintings (rarely seen) of adorable Michael Jackson in a suit, a mystical jewel-clad Cyndi Lauper... Plus, Warhol managed to capture Madonna's real personality in 1985.Yes, in real life her eyes are GREEN.And here she looks very Wicked - like the "Wicked" Wicked Witch - with swooping purple eyebrows and a big mole under her snooty nose.

Amazing to say the least!
... Read more

Product Description
Pop artist Andy Warhol is a source of continuing fascination and visual excitement. While he first worked as an illustrator, he grew most famous for appropriating images from popular culture and incorporating them into his paintings and silkscreen prints. Abrams' 2011 Warhol engagement calendar features more than fifty full-colour images from the 1950s through the 1980s. It highlights the artist's most fabulous and recognizable works of art along with a rich and rare selection of drawings, photographs, illustrations, and quotations. ... Read more