Customer Reviews

Andy Warhol 365 Takes: The Andy Warhol Museum Collection

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Even at list price, this book is a great bargain.

The binding of this book is itself a work of art. It's also just one clear demonstration of how much care this staff puts into what they do.If you are an artist, you'll want to get the staff of the Andy Warhol Museum to come work at your museum.

The web site of the museum is another sign of how special this staff is. They even include a step by step opportunity for you to learn how Warhol made his silkscreens by making one yourself. As a Web application and as a learning experience, it's a standout and you can email the result to friends.

In this book, they had the wisdom not to try to present the definitive Warhol. That's why it is 365 takes and not 1 take.
Wouldn't you have liked to have lived your life so richly that 365 takes were needed to give a sense of who you are.

Granted, each of these takes (images on one page and text on the facing page) can't go very deep. However, they aren't fragments, each tries to be complete in itself. Chronology and flow are eschewed. The staff isn't trying to sell you on how Warhol was or how he got to be as he is, they are simply sharing with you these views, via his work, so you can perhaps develop a sense for yourself of what Warhol is about.

What really sinks in after just one pass thru these 365 takes, is that Warhol was about a lot. He had incredible coverage.

Because this book is so beautiful, the trashiness I'd come to associate with the Warhol scene isn't that apparent. The differences (from conventional lives) are. The productivity is. The fascinations are. The richness of experience is. The lack of judgmentalism is.

Seeing the web site and this book makes me wish a lot to visit Pittsburgh and see the Andy Warhol Museum first hand. And if this staff indeed somehow were all at another museum, I'd certainly want to go there. This museum staff is outstanding and one way you can tell how outstanding they are is to get this remarkably inexpensive high-quality book.

Think of this as an Andy a day keeping the aggravation away. Compiled by the staff of the Andy Warhol Museum (located in Pittsburgh, PA, and this year celebrating its tenth anniversary), this is a monumental, if scattered, collection of everything Warhol, deliberately non-traditional and open-ended. Fashion sketches from the `50s, Polaroids, the Brillo boxes, stills from his movies and television appearances, silkscreens and pencil drawings, the Death and Disaster Series, the Three Marilyns, the collaborations with the Velvet Underground ... it's all here, and it's all interlaced with quotes from Warhol, and "experts" on Warhol. The experts, today, sound like bozos, but there is humor and humanity in all of Warhol's comments. 365 Takes is a big book, perhaps too big, since Warhol is best savored in smaller doses. Still, the book certainly whets one's appetite for more concentrated, linear works of this great artist. Warhol's take on the middle of the twentieth century is astoundingly accurate and informed. Certainly very much the artist as an outsider observing the current culture, his views are surprisingly kind and simple. Let's face it: We all love gossip, dirty pictures and celebrities. Maybe we couldn't admit it back then, but it was true. And, of course, we all love Campbell's Soup.

Huge book - don't let appearance on the internet fool you, it's a brick (about 3inches thick!) and packed full of information; Andy's life, his work, his love his passion it's amazing.

The book takes you on a journey through early years to his death and how his art transformed throughout his career. It shows Andy's sketches and un-released art and art from his private collection.

Fascinating and a brilliant coffee table book.

Stunning 5 stars

My girlfiend really loves the book. It seems to be an interesting book of writings, facts, and art.

I had ordered this book back in Decemper of 2009 as a christmas gift. it arrived in time, yet terribly damaged. i sent it back and was refunded my money. i was very disappointed to have given it up because it was such a great book! full of pictures, text and personal stories of Warhol. i decided to re-order the gift for the persons birthday and found a copy that was a decent price so i ordered it. my order was cancelled twice because of wrong pricing and bad conditions of the book. after that i was kind of discouraged to actually get the book. but i knew it was a GREAT pulication so i just had to try again! i finally found a great condition copy at an amazing price! it was sent to me in very little time and in perfect condidtion! i was sad to have given this book away as a gift because its such a gem! however, i know the recipient was very greatful and she LOVES it! a definate must have if you are a Warhol fan!

"Andy Warhol 365 Takes" sure lays to rest the notion that Warhol was just the guy who painted soup cans and Brillo boxes. Warhol did almost everything--you might even say that artists since his death are following up on the avenues that Warhol originally opened in what has since become the new artistic landscape. I mean, Warhol even painted with his own wee-wee. I'll bet a lot of people don't know that--and a lot more people dont care, but still, it bears consideration when evaluating Warhol's creative boundaries...which are vast, seemingly nonexistent, like interstellar space.

This book, "Andy Warhol 365 Takes" is one of those weird rectangular format hardcover art books, 6x11, maybe, I dont know, my finger isnt calibrated like a ruler and my arm isnt long enough to reach the kitchen drawer where I keep my ruler. Its a fun sized book, though, and on each page there is some piece of Warholia--a print, a drawing, a photo, a film still, a reproduction of a scrap book page, etc.--and on the facing page a short, usually no more than two paragraphs, bit of text giving some pertinent background of the illustrated piece. So this book ends up being part art retrospective, part critical review, part biography of Warhol--a must, therefore, for every Warhol admirer, assembled as it is by some folks associated with the Warhol museum, which is unfortunately located in Pittsburgh.

Andy Warhol says stuff like, "Isnt life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?"

This is one of the many things he said that illustrate what a clever and deft mind he had behind that bleached-out mask of fey vacuity.

Even if you don't like Warhol...well, if you don't like him I guess you won't like this book, unless you don't really know the incredible variety of his work, and then you might find you do like him, after all. (Of course, you might find that you hate him even more than ever). The fact is, like him or not, to a large degree, you're living in a Warhol world. So much of the ubiquitous design of everyday life--especially the media with which we're bombarded with virtually every waking moment of our lives--has been influenced by Warhol. You might be surprised to discover to what extent this is true.

Warhol was a prophet, too. What, after all, is the internet if not in part a manifestation of his most (in)famous prophecy about the fifteen minutes of fame
everyone can expect to have in the future. Youtube is a Warholian dream come true. The blogosphere, of which this blog that you are presently reading is a part, is the same Warholian dream come true (btw, I use the word "dream" to include the notion of "nightmare.")

I cant tell sometimes whether this book elates me or deflates me. So much of what I thought I would like to do has already been done by Warhol. So much of what there is left for anyone to do would only be a variation of what Warhol did. This is ironic inasmuch as "all" Warhol ever did was copy things.

Another thing that may surprise those who havent already been surprised by this is that Warhol's work is full of art-historical references--its not just a lot of arbitrary chicanery and flim-flam. Even Warhol's cozying up to the rich and powerful has its precedents when artists sought the patronage of kings and popes, who commisioned artists to paint their portraits and design their tombs and palazzos. Dali understood this as well, throwing off the "romantic" notion of the misunderstood, alienated, starving artist. So did Picasso.

Warhol wanted to be Picasso--that is, the artist everyone thinks of when you say the word "artist" even if you don't know anything about art. The way even an illiterate knows that Shakespeare is a great writer and Einstein is the archetype for genius that you use when you want to let someone know what a moron you think they are, as in "Hey, that's it Einstein, step right in front my car, why don't you?" One of these days, I think that will indeed be the case. I think Warhol will eclipse all artists of the last century and join Leonardo as the artist that people think of when people say "artist." God forbid, but probably in a hundred years or so some boob will make a billion dollars with some dreadful book called "The Warhol Code." Well, that's at least one good reason to die, in any event.

"In the sixties," Warhol says, "average types started having sex-identity problems, and some people saw a lot of their own questions about themselves being acted out by drag queens. So then, nautrally, people seemed to sort of want them around--almost as if it made them feel better because then they say to themselves, 'I may not know exactly what I am, but at least I know I'm not a drag queen."

I gave this a lot of thought, wondering if that is what ought to give me some hope about finding a place in the world. Maybe I'm like a temple prostitute in the old days of the goddess Cybele, whose male devotees castrated themselves and donned women's clothing. I live in a liminal space that "normal" people are afraid to inhabit themselves...they need scapegoats like me to inhabit that space for them.

Well, my idea of a review is to natter on about this and that until I've pretty much run out of stuff to say and when I start talking about how I'm like a castrated temple prostitute whose life is devoted to the ancient goddess Cybele, I know that I've pretty much run out of stuff to say...well, at least about "Andy Warhol 365 Takes." Its a great book. I'm not lending my copy to anyone so don't even ask.

No, not a substitute for a visit to the museum, but a great review of that experience. Highly recommended.

The package came faster then I thought especially right before christmas. Also it came sealed which was great.

This is a thoughtful book which does not leave much out until you get to the index on pages 740-742. The pages are long horizontally, usually presenting text and a large number running from 1 on the page after page 5 to 365 on the page two pages before page 736. The index lists the big numbers only, the "Take" number. Are punching bags in the index? No. Is Jean-Michel Basquiat in the index? Yes, for six Takes under "Basquiat, Jean-Michel" and for three of the same Takes under "Jean-Michel Basquiat" (portraits, only one of which includes "and urine on canvas"). Is The Last Supper in the index? Yes, for three Takes. Do any of the Takes listed for Jean-Michel Basquiat coincide with Takes listed for The Last Supper? No, neither three or six, none! Which Take has ten punching bags? Take 255!!! How many times is Take 255 in the index? Just once, for "Ten Punching Bags (Last Supper)." Obviously, to use the index you need to know precisely what you are looking for.

In my previous review of a DVD on Andy Warhol as a great artist of the 20th century, I believe I understated how many times the word "JUDGE" appears on the ten punching bags. In the view shown in the photo in Take 255, I can count 5 times on the first, 6 times on the second, then 3, 5, 4, 4, 1, 1, 3, and 4 times, respectively, on the third to the tenth bag. Most of the bags look black and white, but the eighth bag has a blue crown or dark halo which might obscure a second "JUDGE" or "JESUS," a blue shape like a torso with head, the words "LEAD" and "ASBESTOS" and possibly BS, with a copyright insignia after the "JUDGE" at the bottom of the eighth punching bag. The bags are hanging so close together that a physics student is bound to wonder how many bags would start swinging if viewers had the opportunity to give a bag on one end a good punch into the rest of the line. The head of Christ appears to be largest on the first, fifth, and sixth punching bags, with the second and eighth having the smallest heads, to produce a standing wave effect even when the 14 inch diameter by 42 inch long bags are hanging stationary from chains to big beams in the ceiling. The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh used to be a big warehouse, and Ten Punching Bags (Last Supper) might still be hanging there, because Entry 255 is not listed in the Photograph Credits, unless the bags are included in the bragging rights claimed by "Except where otherwise noted, ownership of all material is The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh." (p. 742). I hope they never catch me walking into that place with my practice gloves on.