Warhol

Blake Gopnik

Book - 2020

The definitive biography of a fascinating and paradoxical figure, one of the most influential artists of his--or any--age To this day, mention the name "Andy Warhol" to almost anyone and you'll hear about his famous images of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. But though Pop Art became synonymous with Warhol's name and dominated the public's image of him, his life and work are infinitely more complex and multi-faceted than that. In Warhol, esteemed art critic Blake Gopnik takes on Andy Warhol in all his depth and dimensions. "The meanings of his art depend on the way he lived and who he was," as Gopnik writes. "That's why the details of his biography matter more than for almost any cultural figure,&q...uot; from his working-class Pittsburgh upbringing as the child of immigrants to his early career in commercial art to his total immersion in the "performance" of being an artist, accompanied by global fame and stardom--and his attempted assassination. The extent and range of Warhol's success, and his deliberate attempts to thwart his biographers, means that it hasn't been easy to put together an accurate or complete image of him. But in this biography, unprecedented in its scope and detail as well as in its access to Warhol's archives, Gopnik brings to life a figure who continues to fascinate because of his contradictions--he was known as sweet and caring to his loved ones but also a coldhearted manipulator; a deep-thinking avant-gardist but also a true lover of schlock and kitsch; a faithful churchgoer but also an eager sinner, skeptic, and cynic.Wide-ranging and immersive, Warhol gives us the most robust and intricate picture to date of a man and an artist who consistently defied easy categorization and whose life and work continue to profoundly affect our culture and society today.

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Subjects
Published
New York, NY : ECCO, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers [2020]
Language
English
Main Author
Blake Gopnik (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xi, 961 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9780062298393
  • Prelude: Death
  • Chapter 1. (1938-1934)
  • Birth | Pittsburgh | Carpatho-Rusyns | Church
  • Chapter 2. (1934-1945)
  • Family Life | School | Illness | The Carnegie Institute | Schenley High | College Bound
  • Chapter 3. (1945-1947)
  • Fine Arts at Carnegie Tech | Classmates and Teachers | A Dose of Failure | Window Dressing | Gay Life and Its Dangers | Artistic Role Models
  • Chapter 4. (1947-1949)
  • Dada and Film at Tech | Outlines Gallery and the Avant-Garde | Star Student | Origins of the Blotted Line | New York Horizons
  • Chapter 5. (1949)
  • First New York Digs and Contracts | Fashion Magazines, Record Covers, Book Jackets
  • Chapter 6. (1949-1951)
  • Franziska Boas and the Bohemian Life | A Starving-Artist Commune | Tommy Jackson and a First Flirtation | Living Solo and Hunting for Work
  • Chapter 7. (1951-1952)
  • New Luxuries | Otto Fenn | Stalking Capote | Julia Warhola Arrives | Commercial Success | Whimsical Chapbooks
  • Chapter 8. (1952-1954)
  • Hugo Gallery and an Homage to Capote | To Lower Lexington | The Cats | The First Boyfriend | The First Wig
  • Chapter 9. (1954-1955)
  • Serendipity Café | Coloring Parties | Camp | The Loft Gallery
  • Chapter 10. (1955-1956)
  • Window Display | Shoes Shoes Shoes | Nathan Gluck Arrives | The Bodley Gallery
  • Chapter 11. (1956-1959)
  • Generosity | Charles Lisanby | The World Tour | Compulsive Shopping | Edward Wallowitch | Ray Johnson | The Foot Book | A Silver Decor for the Theater | 1,000 Names and Where to Drop Them
  • Chapter 12. (1960-1961)
  • The New Town House | Illness | Art Collecting | Judson Church Performances | Emile de Antonio | The Threat of Photography | An Art-Market Boom
  • Chapter 13. (1961)
  • Window Props Become Pop Art | Yves Klein | Ivan Karp and Henry Geldzahler Visit the Studio
  • Chapter 14. (1961-1962)
  • Youth Culture | Faux Innocence | The Critical Reception of Pop
  • Chapter 15. (1962)
  • Warhol, a "New Talent" | Hunt for a Gallery | Painting Money | Soup Cans in Los Angeles | Martha Jackson Cancels a Show | The Stable Gallery Steps Up
  • Chapter 16. (1962)
  • Birth of the Silkscreen | Liz Taylor and Baseball | "New Realists" and the Launch of Pop | Marilyn at the Stable
  • Chapter 17. (1963)
  • The Firehouse | Death and Disasters | Costumes for The Beast in Me | Photo Booth Portraits | A Portrait of Ethel Scull | Mona Lisa
  • Chapter 18. (1963)
  • Gerard Malanga Starts Work | Downtown Poets | Amphetamines | Downtown Filmmakers | Home Movies with Jack Smith in Old Lyme | John Giorno in Sleep | Kiss | The Put-On
  • Chapter 19. (1963)
  • Elvis and Liz in Los Angeles | Driving to L.A. | Hollywood Reception and Marcel Duchamp | Taylor Mead and Naomi Levine in Tarzan | Mourning J.F.K. | Jackie | The Haircuts
  • Chapter 20. (1964)
  • Finding the Factory | Screen Tests | Billy Name | The Factory, Silvered | Boxes at the Stable Gallery
  • Chapter 21. (1964)
  • The First Factory Party | Most Wanted Men for the World's Fair | A Raunchy Couch and Blow Job | The Empire State Building, Observed | Flowers
  • Chapter 22. (1964)
  • From Eleanor Ward to Leo Castelli | Stipend Stability | Baby Jane Holzer, Girl of the Year | Soap Opera | Pop Goes Mainstream
  • Chapter 23. (1965)
  • An Anti-Christmas Tree | Film Accolades | Speed Freaks | Henry Geldzahler Smokes a Cigar | Philip Fagan, First of the Live-in Lovers | 30 Films in One Year | Movies and the Death of Painting
  • Chapter 24. (1965)
  • Edie Sedgwick | To Paris with Friends | Superstardom | Andy and Edie, Fashion Twins | The Striped Shirt | The Birth of Video Art: Outer and Inner Space | Warhol Fan Clubs | A Celebrity, At Last
  • Chapter 25. (1965)
  • Factory Rivalries | New Arrivals: Paul Morrissey, Brigid Berlin, Bibbe Hansen | Too Many Parties | My Hustler | Danny Williams Moves In, Then Out
  • Chapter 26. (1965)
  • Andymania at the Philadelphia I.C.A. | Warhol Sculpts His Persona
  • Chapter 27. (1966)
  • The Velvet Underground | Rocking a Dinner for Shrinks | Fall of Edie, Rise of Ingrid Superstar
  • Chapter 28. (1966)
  • The Exploding Plastic Inevitable | New Warholians: Mary Woronov, Susan Bottomry, Susan Pile | The End of Illustration | Money Worries, and Hopes | A Velvet Underground Album
  • Chapter 29. (1966)
  • Silver Clouds and Wallpaper Cows | Julia Warhola at Home, and Ailing | Richard Rheem Moves In, Then Out
  • Chapter 30. (1966)
  • Repetition as an Art Supply | A Portrait of Holly Solomon | Clouds and Cows Cross the Country | A Boston Retrospective | The Velvets on Tour | "You're In" Perfume | Jane Heir, A Failed Feature Film | The Birth of Chelsea Girls
  • Chapter 31. (1967)
  • Max's Kansas City | Flesh on Film: Bike Boy and Nude Restaurant | A Crumbling Factory | Rod La Rod | The Andy Warhol Story | Superstar Russian Roulette
  • Chapter 32. (1967)
  • Dead-End Art | Prints, A New Income Stream | Chelsea Girls Goes National, and to Cannes | Thirteen Most Wanted Men in Paris | End of the Velvets
  • Chapter 33. (1967)
  • Four Stars-25 Hours of Film | a: a novel-24 Hours of Talk | Andy Warhol's Index (Book) | A Fake Lecture Tour | Exit Gerard Malanga | The Silver Factory Shuts Down
  • Chapter 34. (1968)
  • A New Studio on Union Square | Lonesome Cowboys in Arizona | Order Replaces Chaos | Last of the Factory Crowd | Fancy Fred Hughes | A Survey in Sweden
  • Chapter 35. (1968)
  • Valerie Solanas | SCUM Manifesto | I, a Man | The Shooting | The Hospital | The Arrest
  • Chapter 36. (1968)
  • Recovery | Security at the Studio | Midnight Cowboy | Solanas and the Feminists | Flesh and the Business of Film | New (Super-)Stars: Joe Dallesandro and a Transgendered Trio
  • Chapter 37. (1968)
  • Home from the Hospital | Editing Lonesome Cowboys | 100 Happy Rockefellers | Julia in Decline | Jed Johnson Moves In | Back in the Saddle but Still Sore | Pat Hackett, Ultimate Ghostwriter | Hospital Bills, Lawsuits and Rubber Checks | Profitable Portraits
  • Chapter 38. (1968-1969)
  • Fuck, A Blue Movie | Forays into Conceptualism: Vacuum Cleaners and Superstars for Rent | "Raid the Icebox" and the Museum as Art | Floating Chairs and Rain Machines | Video Ventures | A Sundae for Schrafft's
  • Chapter 39. (1969)
  • Valerie Solanas Gets Out | More Surgery | Rolling Stones Album Covers | Hollywood Film Plans Collapse (Twice) | Gerard Malanga's "Male Parade" | The Birth of Interview | Business Art, the Next Step After Art | Frozen Foods at the Andy-Mat
  • Chapter 40. (1970-1971)
  • A Warhol Retrospective (Again) | Bob Colacello and Vincent Fremont Come on Board | Andy Warhol, Super-Shopper | New Patrons: Sandy and Peter Brant | L'Amour and Its Crowd | VIP Living | Failures in Theater: Andy Warhol's Pork and Man on the Moon
  • Chapter 41. (1971-1972)
  • Financial Fiddling | Fine Cars and Real Estate | Country Life and Celebrity Renters: Lee Radziwill and the Kennedy Kids, Mick and Bianca Jagger
  • Chapter 42. (1972-1973)
  • Julia Warhola Heads Home to Die | Chairman Mao and the Un-Death of Painting | Biting into Europe's Upper Crust | The Polaroid Big Shot, for Big Shots | Gallstone Warning | Frankenstein and Dracula in Rome | With Warhol, Liz Taylor is in The Driver's Seat
  • Chapter 43. (1974)
  • Warhol Headquarters in Paris | Interview, Fashion and Society | Halston and Glamour | The Bent Genders of Ladies and Cattlemen | The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (and of His Ghostwriters) | POPism, a (Non-)Autobiography
  • Chapter 44. (1974-1975)
  • A New Home | Jed Johnson Decorates | Return of Brigid Berlin | Time Capsules and the Fine Art of Junk | Highborn Interns | A Rolls-Royce to the Diamond District | The Interview Lunch and Its Prey
  • Chapter 45. (1975-1977)
  • Portrait Prey: Iranian Royals and Imelda Marcos | At the White House with Gerald Ford | In Georgia with Jimmy Carter | Commercial Art: Athletes, Pets, Cars and Houses | Victor Hugo and the Nude as Landscape | Piss Paintings
  • Chapter 46. (1977-19SO)
  • Studio 54 | Shadow Paintings | Portraits at the Whitney | Bad, the Last Movie | Jed Johnson Leaves
  • Chapter 47. (1981)
  • Warhol the Model | Exposures: A Social Life | Ronald Feldman's Business Propositions | Outsourcing to Rupert Smith
  • Chapter 48. (1982-1983)
  • The New Art Kids | Warhol and Basquiat | Rorschach Paintings | Shopping and Collecting
  • Chapter 49. (1982-1986)
  • The ConEd Studio | Andy Warhol TV | Tensions with Fred Hughes | Ad Work | The Love Boat | Camouflage Paintings | Jon Gould | AIDS | Warhol's Charity
  • Chapter 50. (1986-1987)
  • Crystal Therapy | Last Suppers in Milan | Stitched Photos | The Last Runway | Gallbladder Trouble | The Fatal Surgery
  • Postlude: Afterlife
  • A Note on Sources
  • Acknowledgments
  • Credits
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

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. Through close attention to Warhol's radical silkscreens, films, and writing, as well as the goings-on at his infamous Factory, prominent art critic Gopnik details how the iconic artist sculpted "his persona into a work of user-friendly Pop Art." With each chapter corresponding to roughly a year in the artist's life (though the first 17 are greatly condensed), he's able to slowly disclose the patchwork of Warhol's diverse influences and art-world references. Gopnik links, for instance, Warhol's film Kiss to a 1910s short film of the same name, and the seemingly junk-filled boxes Warhol dubbed Time Capsules to a period work by the German artist Gerhard Richter. Throughout, readers encounters artists like Stuart Davis and Sister Mary Corita, critics like Gregory Battcock and Ray Johnson, spaces like Ferus Gallery and the La MaMa theater. Gopnik's in-depth portrait is for the Warhol-initiated, who will gain new appreciation for the artist as the ultimate aesthetic "sponge."

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Art, commerce, homosexual camp, and the 1960s counterculture were all blithely blenderized by one man's genius, according to this sweeping biography of pop art master Andy Warhol. Art critic and New York Times contributor Gopnik dives deep into Warhol's oeuvre, from the famous pieces that mirrored mass-produced imagery--paintings of Campbell Soup cans and Brillo boxes, screen prints of celebrities including Marilyn Monroe--and his semiprurient, militantly unwatchable avant-garde films (Sleep comprised five hours of footage of a naked man sleeping) to his late urine-on-canvas phase. But Warhol's greatest image was himself, and Gopnik's fascinating narrative does full justice to the silver-wigged, pixie-ish, satirically vapid provocateur ("verybody's plastic--but I love plastic," he pronounced during a Hollywood sojourn) and to the maelstrom of drugs, partying, and crazed excess at the Factory, his New York studio-cum-asylum for artsy eccentrics. One of them, Valerie Solanas, founder of the Society for Cutting Up Men, shot and gravely wounded Warhol--and then asked him to pay her legal bills. Gopnik's exhaustive but stylishly written and entertaining account is Warholian in the best sense--raptly engaged, colorful, open-minded, and slyly ironic. ("He had become his own Duchampian urinal, worth looking at only because the artist in him had said he was.") Warhol fans and pop art enthusiasts alike will find this an endlessly engrossing portrait. Photos. (Apr.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Named a resident biography fellow at CUNY's Leon Levy Center for Biography and recipient of a Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library, leading art critic Gopnik uses broad access to Warhol's archives to explore the artist's immigrant background, working-class upbringing, experience with commercial art, and more. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

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