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Helping to Understand Warhol
Andy Warhol remains to be one of the most prominent figures of American art. His approach and philosophy crashed the traditional thinking of high art in America. Americans more so than other cultures have always regarded art as a definition of individuality. Particularly in comparison to what had been happening Europe already. Much of Warhol's career slams that idea. For him, art was first and foremost a tool a communication which also highlights the modern debate of whether or not graphic design is art.

In order to understand Warhol's ideology, you cannot simply know only a few pieces. It the collective body of his work that defines his philosophy. The individual can still be appreciated, but much like the writing of Vonnegut or the science of Hawking, it is much more comprehensive to know a number of works.

This book collects the work, but comes complete with essays that summarize and explain the work. The contributors are amazingly involved with Warhol. They have curated the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and known his work intimately. This perspective is a unique insight into an artist that is arguably one of the most misunderstood of our time. ... Read more

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In the early 1950s he sketched them. In the '60s he filmed them. And during the '70s and '80s he primarily silk-screened them. But whatever the medium, faces were a dominant theme of Andy Warhol's work throughout his career. And though his portrait work was as often decried by art critics as it was praised by viewers, he never wavered in his interest. About Face: Andy Warhol Portraits is, as the title suggests, a narrowly focused book that explores this favorite subject. Among the book's 75 or so plates, images of Jackie, Marilyn, and Mao join portraits of subjects who need last names to be identified and of Warhol himself. Readers will notice that all of the images--movie stills of Edie Sedgwick and Lou Reed, Polaroids of Warhol in drag, early Interview magazine covers--are unmistakably the work of the same artist. Warhol's choice of wide-ranging portrait subjects, from famous pop-culture figures to anonymous friends and faces drawn from his imagination, allowed him to explore issues of identity, celebrity, and even portraiture itself. With its lovely plates and scholarly essays, this slim but expertly produced book--published to coincide with an exhibition at Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum in the fall of 1999 and the Miami Art Museum in spring 2000--would make a worthy addition to the library of any Warhol fan. --Jordana Moskowitz ... Read more

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through
walking through his colourful style in all portraits the reality is swept away and the eccentric personas survive ... Read more