Customer Reviews

Andy Warhol: The Late Work

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This set--catalogue for an exhibition currently traveling through Europe--is a nice survey of Warhol's underrated later work, including material not covered in any of the big retrospective volumes. The first part covers (mostly) paintings and (a few) wallpaper designs, starting with the ubiquitous "Mao" series and ending with the "Last Supper" series. In between, we get some of Warhol's most beautiful and enigmatic work (including the "Hammer and Sickles", a range of self portraits, the fairly well-known "Shadow", "Oxidation" and "Camouflage" paintings, as well as lesser-known things like the truly wonderful "Yarn" paintings). This is an exhibition catalogue, and as such only includes a few paintings from each series--we'll have to wait for the final volumes of the Warhol Catalogue Raisonne for the full experience. The paintings are reproduced nicely, with folding plates for the larger work and sometimes closeup details. The second partcovers photography, books, video and movies, along with some samples from Warhol's "Interview" magazine. The photography section is especially fun, as it includes contact sheets from Warhol's continual documentation of the world around him, sometimes juxtaposed with appropriate excerpts from his diaries. The final part consists on interviews with Warhol and essays about him, the former fun, the latter a mixed bag.

The format of the set is sharp: three paperbound volumes (not four as the amazon.com description says) with contrasting spines (paper, cloth and glue) housed in a sturdy slipcase with a luscious closeup reproduction of one of Warhol's "Oxidation" paintings. The individual paperbacks seem rather flimsy, my only concern about this handsome set.