Warhol
by
16/99
Critics' Rating Index
72/99
Readers' Rating Index
n/a
Scholars' Citation Index
98/99
Volume of Reviews
48/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
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About This Book
When critics attacked Andy Warhol's Marilyn paintings as shallow, the Pop artist was happy to present himself as shallower still: He claimed that he silkscreened to avoid the hard work of painting, although he was actually a meticulous workaholic; in interviews he presented himself as a silly naïf when in private he was the canniest of sophisticates. Blake Gopnik's definitive biography digs deep into the contradictions and radical genius that led Andy Warhol to revolutionise our cultural world.Based on years of archival research and on interviews with hundreds of Warhol's surviving friends, lovers and enemies, Warhol traces the artist's path from his origins as the impoverished son of Eastern European immigrants in 1930s Pittsburgh, through his early success as a commercial illustrator and his groundbreaking pivot into fine art, to the society portraiture and popular celebrity of the '70s and '80s, as he reflected and responded to the changing dynamics of commerce and culture.Warhol sought out all the most glamorous figures of his times - Susan Sontag, Mick Jagger, the Barons de Rothschild - despite being burdened with an almost crippling shyness. Behind the public glitter of the artist's Factory, with its superstars, drag queens and socialites, there was a man who lived with his mother for much of his life and guarded the privacy of his home. He overcame the vicious homophobia of his youth to become a symbol of gay achievement, while always seeking the pleasures of traditional romance and coupledom. (Warhol explodes the myth of his asexuality.)Filled with new insights into the artist's work and personality, Warhol asks: Was he a joke or a genius, a radical or a social climber? As Warhol himself would have answered: Yes.
Reviews
"The artist's devotees will enjoy the revelations Gopnik has teased out regarding a man who, like Picasso and Dalí before him, enjoyed shocking his public almost as much as he relished displaying and purveying his undeniable, genius-level graphic gifts."
"Gopnik's staggeringly thorough biography Warhol examines the artist in granular detail without losing the sweep of his story."
"Gopnik concludes that Warhol has 'overtaken Picasso as the most important and influential artist of the twentieth century,' and now occupies 'the top peak of Parnassus, beside Michelangelo and Rembrandt.' This seems like a leap."
"But the real pleasure of the book is how he tracks Warhol's constant dance between art and commerce, between Warhol's often daffy creations and his scrupulous score-keeping when it came to business and his public image ..."
"[Regarding the] final phase of Warhol's career...Gopnik doesn't make a convincing case for why these portraits were anything other than paydays to fuel Warhol's shopping addiction ..."
"Gopnik establishes throughout the biography the ways Warhol blazed a trail for the gay community to recognize and celebrate each other during a time when being out might lead to bodily harm, or worse ..."
"The most impressive thing about this new Warhol biography is not its length—more than 900 pages—but the fact that art is discussed on nearly every one of them ..."
"Gopnik not only establishes the importance of Warhol's art but also uncovers the whole man."
"It doesn't detract from his art to observe that Warhol had no imagination whatsoever."
"However, it's in Gopnik's assessment of Andy's art that Warhol becomes truly alive and new."
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