The only major biography of Andy Warhol, reissued to coincide with his 75th birthday.. Artist, filmmaker, magazine publisher, instigator of Pop Art, Andy Warhol (19281987) used his canvasses of dollar bills, soup cans, and celebrities to subvert distinctions between high and popular culture. His spectacular career encompassed the underground scene as well as the equally deviant worlds of politics, show business, and high society. Warhol is the definitive chronicle of Warhol's storied life.
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Artist, filmmaker, magazine publisher, instigator of Pop Art, Andy Warhol (1928-1987) used his canvasses of dollar bills, soup cans, and celebrities to subvert distinctions between high and popular culture. His spectacular career encompassed the underground scene as well as the equally deviant worlds of politics, show business, and high society. Warhol is the definitive chronicle of Warhol's storied life.
About the Author
Victor Bockris has written about the cultural heroes of the twentieth century for over thirty years. He is the author or co-author of major biographies on Andy Warhol, Patti Smith, The Velvet Underground, and many others. He lives in New York City.
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First Sentence
By the spring of 1956 Andy Warhol was at the top of his commercial-art career. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
By the spring of 1956 Andy Warhol was at the top of his commercial-art career. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Victor Bockris' biography is sympathetic to Warhol's supposed contrived personality. The reader gets the impression that the author, who had a personal association with Warhol, really understood the facination his subject maintained for his adopted country (the U.S.) throughout most of his working life. While others tend to dismiss Warhol as a simple poseur Bockris relates his wide-eyed enthusiasm for the consumer society. While some have suggested he was manipulative, this biography suggests that he was slightly naive. Most of his life is covered here and, although there is documented proof of some interesting associations that are not touched upon, in general the work is broad in its scope and the reader will discover that the most notorious pop artist of all had far greater depth than his blank features and fickle comments suggested. It is also a feast for those interested in good gossip and the social history of the 60s and 70s.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars
11 reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bockris is sympathetic, underawed and not sycophantic.
16 Sep 1998
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Victor Bockris' biography is sympathetic to Warhol's supposed contrived personality. The reader gets the impression that the author, who had a personal association with Warhol, really understood the facination his subject maintained for his adopted country (the U.S.) throughout most of his working life. While others tend to dismiss Warhol as a simple poseur Bockris relates his wide-eyed enthusiasm for the consumer society. While some have suggested he was manipulative, this biography suggests that he was slightly naive. Most of his life is covered here and, although there is documented proof of some interesting associations that are not touched upon, in general the work is broad in its scope and the reader will discover that the most notorious pop artist of all had far greater depth than his blank features and fickle comments suggested. It is also a feast for those interested in good gossip and the social history of the 60s and 70s.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Warhol Primer
10 Oct 2001
By Nathan
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
As a huge fan of this fascinating man who blured the line between art and commerce, I was looking for a well written book
thicker than a brick that would reveal once and for all the mystery that is Andy Warhol. Im still looking, the definitive Warhol bio is yet to be written it seems, but in the meantime I'll settle for this Bockris book which is a sound overall portrait of the artist and his life. Starting from his poverty and illness stricken childhood in an industrial town in Pennsylvania the author breezily tours the reader through his
college life, and his subsequent move to New York to become a highly successful (and paid) graphic artist, before establishing himself as one of the founding pioneers of pop art. From there we take rollercoaster ride through his film making years at the Factory, his subsequent shooting, and the time he spent as a socialite and portait artist in the last two decades of his life. Some light is shed on the issues concerning Andy's sexuality, Catholicism, monophobia, work ethic, short lived
intimate relationships, shopoholism, and his seemingly aloof public persona.
thicker than a brick that would reveal once and for all the mystery that is Andy Warhol. Im still looking, the definitive Warhol bio is yet to be written it seems, but in the meantime I'll settle for this Bockris book which is a sound overall portrait of the artist and his life. Starting from his poverty and illness stricken childhood in an industrial town in Pennsylvania the author breezily tours the reader through his
college life, and his subsequent move to New York to become a highly successful (and paid) graphic artist, before establishing himself as one of the founding pioneers of pop art. From there we take rollercoaster ride through his film making years at the Factory, his subsequent shooting, and the time he spent as a socialite and portait artist in the last two decades of his life. Some light is shed on the issues concerning Andy's sexuality, Catholicism, monophobia, work ethic, short lived
intimate relationships, shopoholism, and his seemingly aloof public persona.
Though Bockris rightly bestows more pages to Warhols peak years as an artist in the sixties, he skims the later decades of his life. As with his Lou Reed biography, Bockris has a tendency to demonize his subjects towards the final chapters of his works. Try as his he might here, his weakly supported insinuations of Warhol as a cold and manipulative character are more a reflection on the authors own
feelings of insecurity, rather than their being any intrinsic truth in the matter. There is a middle way between sycophantism and character debasement, and Bockris obviously hasn't found it. It's adequately written, albeit unimaginatively, and it takes real effort on part of the reader to stop turning the pages. As it stands, a fine Warhol primer, but for those with an inquiring mind, this book will probably raise more questions than it answers.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good, not great, biography
19 Sep 2006
By David Alston
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Now out in a new edition, Victor Bockris' WARHOL is a very solidly written and researched biography. In particular, the first half creates an extremely detailed portrait of Warhol's Pittsburgh youth; this adds a tremendous amount of context and depth to Warhol's own work, and the meanings and symbolisms of that work will gain new clarity after reading through some of Bockris' book.
Unfortunately, the book gets less detailed and more gossipy later on - Warhol's many flaws are underlined again and again, but Warhol surrounded himself with other highly creative people who launched interesting careers of their own - Paul Morrissey and Lou Reed both spring to mind - and Bockris does little or no investigation of Warhol's influence upon them, and any actual ideas just seem to get lost here amid the varied bits of gossip.
-David Alston
Unfortunately, the book gets less detailed and more gossipy later on - Warhol's many flaws are underlined again and again, but Warhol surrounded himself with other highly creative people who launched interesting careers of their own - Paul Morrissey and Lou Reed both spring to mind - and Bockris does little or no investigation of Warhol's influence upon them, and any actual ideas just seem to get lost here amid the varied bits of gossip.
-David Alston
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4.0 out of 5 stars
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