Review by Choice Review
Written to accompany the first full American retrospective of Warhol since 1989, this catalogue offers a major reassessment of Warhol's life, art, and cultural significance. Rather than framing the man as a painter of soup cans and movie stars, the book shows him, as De Santo writes in the first essay, as an "ambitious, gay, Byzantine Rite Catholic son of Czechoslovak immigrants born on Pittsburgh's working-class North Side." The catalogue includes early representational paintings and advertisements, film stills, and photographs, in addition to Warhol's best-known silkscreen paintings. Rarely seen images abound, reproduced large and in color, adding to the book's delights. The imagery reflects Warhol's diverse interests, including celebrity culture, plastic surgery, dance diagrams, Polaroid photographs, Rorschach tests, and gay sex. Particularly notable are photographs of experimental sculptures titled Rain Machine (1969--70) and Mylar and Plexiglass Construction (c. 1970), which more fully integrate Warhol into the history of conceptual art. Although the book does not overemphasize sexuality, readers should be aware that nudity and eroticism appear throughout. The book is sure to become the definite overview of Warhol's creative output. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. --Travis Nygard, Ripon College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
The darling of pop art released these autobiographical portraits in 1975 and 1980, respectively. With his shock of blonde-white hair and unusual art style, you might think these remembrances would be a real freak show, but instead they're remarkably tame and straightforward. Popism focuses on that movement and the 1960s, while Philosophyis more a personal reflection. Both would fit nicely into art or biography collections. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
