Andy Warhol Screen Tests: The Films of Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne (Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonnee) [Hardcover]

Callie Angell (Author)

Book Description

Series: Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonnee | Publication Date: April 1, 2006

Published in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art

In the mid-1960s, at the height of his creative powers, Andy Warhol produced hundreds of three-minute cinematic portraits, called "Screen Tests." Although rarely screened now, these short films captured a virtual who's who of the avant-garde, including such cultural icons as Edie Sedgwick, Bob Dylan, Salvador Dali, and Susan Sontag. At last, in the initial volume of the authorized catalogue raisonné of Warhol's films, Warhol authority Callie Angell examines all 189 people captured by Warhol's lens. Stills from many of the films appear here for the first time. Drawing on 13 years of original research into the Screen Test subjects and their relationships to Warhol, Angell provides an unprecedented look at the pop art master's working method, and a unique record of his colorful social and professional life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1963, Warhol began making short, silent films of the people who came through his New York studio, accumulating personalities in the same way he collected Campbell's soup cans or Brillo boxes. The first in a two-volume catalogue (which will eventually encompass all of Warhol's cinema), this book offers some surprisingly engrossing entries, while serving as a basic reference guide to the films. In addition to supplying the expected cataloguing data (dates, running time, cast, credits and other notations), the capsule biographies of the subjects and film action narratives reveal the fascinating and creative world of the Factory. Here is the tragic Freddy Herko, who "danced out the window of John Dodd's fifth-floor apartment"; models Ivy Nicholson and Imu; poets John Ashbery and Ted Berrigan; and musicians Lou Reed and Bob Dylan. Equally interesting are blurbs about the unknowns: "A young man named Stevie, with an illegible last name. Near the end of the roll, someone throws water on his face from offscreen." Several essays speculate about Warhol's overarching intentions for the films and discuss their mysteriously limited showings. Extravagantly produced with 780 photographs, the book reinforces the sense of Warhol as an expert in subverting notions of celebrity. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The New Yorker

Between 1964 and 1966, Andy Warhol posed nearly five hundred hangers-on, Factory denizens, drag queens, socialites, critics, curators, art collectors, and poets in front of a movie camera for three-minute "screen tests": silent, black-and-white portraits shot mostly in closeup. This catalogue raisonné provides a comprehensive identification of participants, who ranged from the famous (Susan Sontag, Bob Dylan) to the unknown. Although the frame enlargements can't capture the arresting dramatic tension of the films themselves—how long can the subjects maintain their pose?—Angell provides a level of biographical detail that verges on the novelistic, weaving a web of acquaintance, collaboration, and random encounter that amounts to a portrait of an era.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810955393
• ISBN-13: 978-0810955394
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #270,335 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the best film document for warhol, March 29, 2006

By 

BILLY NAME "BILLY NAME" (billyname.com, NEW YORK, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Andy Warhol Screen Tests: The Films of Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne (Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonnee) (Hardcover)

callie angell's expert volume 1 of the warhol film catalog raisonne (screentests) is a must for all libraries as the most authentic referrence manual for this ouvre. all information is from direct viewing of the films and interviews with actual participants. it is therefore the primary source for this series of warhol film art. the publication is beautiful and the illustrations, actual stills from the acutal films, are exciting. the text and essays are chock full of technical info on the making of the series, social notes included. a must have for all serious warhol souces. abrams and the whitney museum of american art did a fine job; it's a historical documentary publication in the art world.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Warholia, May 12, 2007

By 

Bennett Theissen "chillroom" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Andy Warhol Screen Tests: The Films of Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne (Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonnee) (Hardcover)

Wow, it's hard to top Billy Name himself writing a review of this, but this book is a real gas and an essential catalog of Warhol's screen tests. You get stills from each of the tests, with a brief bio of each of the subjects. Always interesting and informative, full of surprises and humor, and exhaustively detailed. There were even a few color tests done, and you get stills from each of them too. Some of these people are true shadows and we know little, and some are truly beautiful (Amy Taubin!). I am really looking forward to Volume Two and the "features." Warhol being the most important artist of the second half of the 20th Century, it is even possible that these films may be his most important art works. Mailer said that we wouldn't recognize their value for fifty years, but we've now passed the forty year mark and my impression is that most people would still want to ignore these -- but time will tell.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars probably the best Screen Tests reference-not that I'd know, November 12, 2006

By 

J. Alvarado (Milwaukee, WI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Andy Warhol Screen Tests: The Films of Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne (Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonnee) (Hardcover)

Bought it as an anniversary gift. Before wrapping it I paged through and quickly became engrossed. I'm not sure I would have been as interested if I hadn't previously seen many of the screen tests. Author accepts Screen Tests as canonical films whose production details are of tremendous significance. Brief bios and gossipy tidbits cater to shallower retro-interest in the usual superstars, although numerous people cast in the Screen Tests were rich patrons and art industry knobs. Like much of Warhol's oeuvre, the Screen Tests merit sustained viewing only if you're willing to invest a lot in the experience. Vol 1 provides innarestin' background for people so inclined. Might buy Vol 2, if it isn't bloated with stuff on the Warhol-Morrissey productions.