Warhol kick
I’m on a Warhol kick here, so I’m chuffed to see that Marco is coming around to Warhol, too. I’m currently reading a book of interviews (I am Your Mirror) that Terri bought for $6 somewhere or other recently, maybe in Virginia. We also recently watched the recent documentary on American Masters on PBS (the first part of which was great, and the second was somewhat uneven).
I used to think he was a fraud, but years ago, I came around and realized he was a fake, a real fake, sometimes in spite of the famous vacuousness and some times because of it.
November 8th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
I bought the book in San Francisco. Admit it; I brought you around to Warhol (it’s one of my few victories and I’m damn proud of it). Can’t wait to get back to the Warhol Museum. Since I felt like the PBS bio, while very interesting and really pretty good, felt incomplete, it seems pointless for me to try to make some pithy little statement about him here–there’s too much. His work is a lot of things, and it says a ton about the 20th century and art in America.
November 8th, 2006 at 11:51 pm
Firstly, kudos to Ezra for use of the word “chuff.” It’s probably my favorite Britishism after “Bollocks” and “Brilliant!”
Secondly, kudos to Terri for getting Ezra to change his opinion on anything.
Thirdly, I don’t know what caused it to happen, but I’ve become mildly obsessed with Warhol these past few weeks. Some recommendations:
Warhol by Victor Bokris.
It frequently skews towards lurid detail but it’s also meticulously researched and does good job of depicting his childhood growing up in an immigrant family in Pittsburgh, his art school days, and his early career as a commercial artist. When the book gets into the 60s and 70s we’re on more familiar ground, yet even then Bokris manages to offer a few fresh surprises. It also manages to portray Warhol in all his contradictions. He is despicable and adorable, generous and greedy, passive but manipulative, emotionally needy yet cooly distant. The man was deeply shallow and shallow in his depth and that is reflected in his work.
Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol.
A documentary made only 3 years after Warhol’s death. There are plenty of interviews with surviving friends and family and an interesting opening credit sequence in which one of Warhol’s previous assistants is shown making a custom silkscreen portrait of Warhol in his trademark style. It demonstrates once and for all, as does Bokris’ book, that in spite of the supposedly impersonal mechanicized process behind his work (an impression Warhol encouraged) it is still a very hands-on, artisan process.
Uncle Andy’s: A FAABBBULOUS VISIT WITH ANDY WARHOL by James Warhola.
A delightful children’s book written and illustrated by one of Andy’s nephews. This is the most rose-tinted view of Warhol you’ll ever see, but it does a nice job of showing what it was like to be a child visiting your famous, eccentric artist uncle.
November 9th, 2006 at 8:57 am
I read the Bockris bio a long time ago. I should re-read it. I recommend POPism: The Warhol Sixties by Warhol and Pat Hackett. Come to think of it, I should really have my own copy of that one. Ultraviolet’s Famous for Fifteen Minutes: My Years with Andy Warhol is fun, too… if you can read it with the understanding that it’s from her perspective and perhaps a little self-aggrandizing. She was friendly with Dali, too. That one can be tricky to find, but copies are out there.
November 9th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
That’s I’ll Be Your Mirror, by the way (not I Am Your Mirror).