Andy Warhol Books

Visual biography of the American painter, printmaker and filmmaker, Andy Warhol.

This book is a summation of the career of an American artist whose work uniquely embodies the cultural shocks and ambiguities of our times. A master of media and an impresario of personality, Andy Warhol had by the time of his death in 1987 elevated himself to what Robert Rosenblum calls "the timeless and spaceless realm of a modern mythology that he himself both created and mirrored." His name, like Picasso's, is known throughout the world; his most famous creations, the familiar icons ofPpop art, are instantly recognized and relentlessly imitated. And yet, many of the works of this multifaceted and prolific artist have been shown and reproduced only sporadically. The exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art which this publication accompanies is the first full-scale, comprehensive Warhol retrospective. This volume, with more than six hundred illustrations, presents for the first time the full range of astonishing oeuvre.

Nach Abschluss seines Studiums (pictorial design) 1949 in Pittsburgh begann Andy Warhol eine erfolgreiche Karriere als kommerzieller Illustrator in New York (Schuh-Zeichnungen). Gleichzeitig entstanden seine privaten Zeichnungen, die hier erstmals gezeigt und veröffentlicht werden. Es sind Portraits, fast ausschliesslich unbekannter männlicher Figuren, wahrscheinlich Partybekanntschaften. Zu einer Zeit, in welcher Homosexuelle als eine unsichtbare Minorität und Travestie als Tabu angesehen wurden, fangen diese Zeichnungen eine private Welt ein.

This new catalogue documents a recent exhibition at the Starmach Gallery in Krakow, presenting Andy Warhol's Polaroid work during the last two decades of his life. The 65 color images here include Warhol's self-portraits - occasionally in drag or another kind of costume - as well as Warhol's pictures of celebrities and artists from all fields. Included here are artists such as Keith Haring, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Francesco Clemente, and Jean-Michel Basquiat; writers such as William S. Burroughs and Truman Capote; and actors including Liza Minelli and Dennis Hopper, among numerous others. These images mark out a territory all their own within Warhol's oeuvre, a space where both living humanity and the spectacle in which it is woven can coexist. Also featured here is "King for a Day," Francesco Clemente's brilliant and revelatory essay on Andy Warhol.

Andy Warhol is one of the most compelling figures of the twentieth- century art world, and his body of work has transformed the landscape of contemporary art. For this book, the museum has gathered the highlights of its collection to create a volume that is as compelling and idiosyncratic as Warhol himself.

Artwork by Andy Warhol. Contributions by Corinna Thierolf, Carla Schulz-Hoffmann.

What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were Since the explorers of the last century gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For brought the knowledge of the great wonders of whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All the world and the beauty of unseen animals and things are connected. planets into our view, much has changed. So much, in fact, that Pulitzer Prize winner Edward O. Wilson exclaimed in 1980 that "The one pro So spoke Seattle, Chief of the Dwamish and Al cess ongoing in the 1980's that will take millions lied Tribes of Puget Sound, in 1855, in reply to "the Great Chief in Washington (who) sent word of years to correct is the loss of genetic and spe that he wishes to buy our land. How can you buy cies diversity by the destruction of natural habi or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea tats. This is the folly our descendants are least is strange to us," he said. likely to forgive us. " These were prophetic words a century ago Extinction has been an ongoing process for Nature was still very much at equilibrium. To be millenia. However, it was a natural process in the past."

A renowned gallerist and collector, the late Ileana Sonnabend acquired an impressive collection of seminal work directly from the Warhol studio at the time of its making. Sonnabend was an early and fervent supporter of Warhol, and held three important exhibitions of his work at her Paris gallery, including the series Death and Disasters (1964), Flowers (1965), and Thirteen Most Wanted Men (1967). This beautifully illustrated book includes essays by Picasso biographer John Richardson and leading Warhol scholar Brenda Richardson, who was a close friend of Sonnabend’s. Her essay is an insightful portrait of the highly regarded dealer and her relationship with Warhol. The book is illuminated by previously unpublished private letters and includes stand-alone facsimile reproductions of the exhibition catalogues, originally published by Galerie Ileana Sonnabend.