Description
The definitive biography of an interesting and paradoxical determine, probably the most influential artists of his—or any—age
To at the moment, point out the identify “Andy Warhol” to just about any individual and also you’ll listen approximately his well-known pictures of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. However regardless that Pop Artwork become synonymous with Warhol’s identify and ruled the general public’s symbol of him, his existence and paintings are infinitely extra complicated and multi-faceted than that.
In Warhol, esteemed Artwork critic Blake Gopnik takes on Andy Warhol in all his intensity and dimensions. “The meanings of his Artwork rely at the manner he lived and who he used to be,” as Gopnik writes. “That’s why the main points of his biography subject greater than for just about any cultural determine,” from his operating-magnificence Pittsburgh upbringing as the kid of immigrants to his early occupation in business Artwork to his overall immersion within the “efficiency” of being an artist, followed by means of world reputation and stardom—and his tried assassination.
The quantity and vary of Warhol’s luck, and his planned makes an attempt to thwart his biographers, signifies that it hasn’t been simple to place in combination a correct or entire symbol of him. However on this biography, unheard of in its scope and element in addition to in its get entry to to Warhol’s information, Gopnik brings to existence a determine who maintains to fascinate on account of his contradictions—he used to be referred to as candy and being concerned to his family members but in addition a coldhearted manipulator; a deep-pondering avant-gardist but in addition a real lover of schlock and kitsch; a loyal churchgoer but in addition an keen sinner, skeptic, and cynic.
Wide-ranging and immersive, Warhol gives us probably the most tough and complicated image so far of a person and an artist who constantly defied simple categorization and whose existence and paintings proceed to profoundly have an effect on our tradition and society as of late.
