Thirteen years after his death, Andy Warhol’s art is more dominant and omnipresent than ever before. In particular, his serial works—the Campbell’s Soup Can, Jackie, Marilyn, Mao, and others—have been reproduced everywhere and have profoundly influenced our perception and thinking about mass culture. This striking book is a highly original survey of Warhol’s entire creative output.
The book begins with an overview of Warhol’s work by Ernst Beyeler and Georg Frei that ranges over the Campbell’s Soup Can pictures, Warhol’s first attempt at using a succession of images based on the same motif in various paintings; the early silk screen prints (portraits of such teenage idols as Elvis Presley, Warren Beatty, and Natalie Wood); the Disaster pictures, which reveal the dark side of American consumer positivism; and the later works, including the Last Supper in which Warhol celebrates his own immortality. Peter Gidal then discusses two of Warhol’s single works, the monumental Saturday’s Disaster and the thirty-minute film Blow Job. And Edward Sanders examines some of Warhol’s images in the context of his life and times. Together the text and copious illustrations are a magnificent testimony to Warhol’s contributions to the world of art.
The book begins with an overview of Warhol’s work by Ernst Beyeler and Georg Frei that ranges over the Campbell’s Soup Can pictures, Warhol’s first attempt at using a succession of images based on the same motif in various paintings; the early silk screen prints (portraits of such teenage idols as Elvis Presley, Warren Beatty, and Natalie Wood); the Disaster pictures, which reveal the dark side of American consumer positivism; and the later works, including the Last Supper in which Warhol celebrates his own immortality. Peter Gidal then discusses two of Warhol’s single works, the monumental Saturday’s Disaster and the thirty-minute film Blow Job. And Edward Sanders examines some of Warhol’s images in the context of his life and times. Together the text and copious illustrations are a magnificent testimony to Warhol’s contributions to the world of art.
