I'll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews [Paperback]

Kenneth Goldsmith (Editor), Wayne Kostenbaum (Preface), Reva Wolf (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 7, 2004

The Question-and-Answer interview was one of Andy Warhol's favorite communication vehicles, so much so that he named his own magazine after the form. Yet, never before has anyone published a collection of interviews that Warhol himself gave. I'll Be Your Mirror contains more then thirty conversations revealing this unique and important artist. Each piece presents a different facet of the Sphinx-like Warhol's ever-evolving personality. Writer Kenneth Goldsmith provides context and provenance for each selection. Beginning in 1962 with a notorious interview in which Warhol literally begs the interviewer to put words into his mouth, the book covers Warhol's most important artistic period during the '60s. As Warhol shifts to filmmaking in the '70s, this collection explores his emergence as socialite, scene-maker, and trendsetter; his influential Interview magazine; and the Studio 54 scene. In the 80s, his support of young artists like Jean-Michel Basquait, his perspective on art history and the growing relationship to technology in his work are shown. Finally, his return to religious imagery and spirituality are available in an interview conducted just months before his death. Including photographs and previous unpublished interviews, this collage of Warhol showcases the artist's ability to manipulate, captivate, and enrich American culture.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"I always feel that my words are coming from behind me, not from me"—this expertly chosen and edited first collection of interviews with inarguably the most influential artist of his and our time shows that for Warhol (1928–1987) the interview was an art form like any other. Again and again, with a variety of interlocutors ranging from the innocent to the fake (as when poet Gerard Malanga asks deliberately loaded questions) to the actively hostile, Warhol expertly controls the situation. But Warhol's judolike feints, in which questioners, tipped over by the weight of their preconceptions, are left clutching at thin air, are less about concealing anything than they are about adding intrigue and tension—entertainment value, if you will—to an inherently absurd and artificial situation. Goldsmith, a conceptual artist, poet and radio host, contributes vividly written general and individual introductions that set up each piece perfectly. In gathering this book, he has performed a service not only for Warhol scholars but for anyone interested in the bewildering transformations of American culture, where "everyone and everything is interesting."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Warhol was fascinated by every aspect of celebrityhood, including the ubiquitous celebrity interview. For Warhol, interviews were performances, sly assaults on pretension and verisimilitude. So intrigued was he with the curious tension between the potential for revelation in interviews versus the predictable format, he started the magazine Interview. And, a celebrity himself, he often granted interviews and proved to be a challenging subject. Writer and radio host Goldsmith now presents the first collection of Warhol interviews, some never before published and all hilarious, arch, and indicative of Warhol's peculiarly prescient and pervasive genius. Over the course of three decades, Warhol toyed with his interlocutors, vamping and evading, and concealing shrewd social and aesthetic insights within seemingly insipid remarks. Warhol was, indeed, a mirror, a spinning disco ball reflecting the superficiality and pathos of human existence, and Goldsmith's meticulous and arresting collection, brilliantly introduced by Reva Wolf, is a key addition to the Warhol canon. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (July 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078671364X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786713646
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #872,301 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars U'mm, Uh, Oh Gee, I guess, this book is just okay, yeah! October 29, 2004

By Mendicant Pigeon

Format:Paperback

First off, you will buy this book because you are a fan of Warhol and frankly you should buy it because it contains a lot of great stuff. I was super excited when I opened this book because I get a kick out of the thought that Warhol was often gently mocking (well, taunting certainly) us with his obtuse and oblique responses to his media questioners. The problem with not actually being able to see Warhol give these interviews is that it is impossible to know how much actually came from his own lips and how much was created to fit the agenda of the person writing or giving the interview. For instance, whenever Warhol was with one of his co-conspirators he often allowed that person to interject an answer to a question on his behalf. Also, many of these interviews were actually composed to fit a particular world view. For instance, Mr. Malanga's interview of Warhol reads like something that Mr. Malanga wrote, probably with Andy's approval, and then submitted for print. This is okay, but the really great stuff in an Andy Warhol interview is what actually issues from Andy accompanied by all of his funny mannerisms and quirks. This sometimes does come through in a number of interviews contained in this book, particularly ones given to novices and young men but too often the interviews read flat and almost textbook like. I don't want to turn you off to this book because I really believe that it is a worthwhile read. I just don't want you to expect too much so that you won't be disappointed.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Theater ... or Andy revealed? November 11, 2004

By calmly

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Wouldn't it be nice to be so important as to warrant almost 400 pages of being interviewed ... which, for Warhol, are only a selection. I wonder how many people have been interviewed as much?

There's a wide variety of interviews here, from the monosyllabic to the raunchy to more or less conventional in form but intelligent in content(when discussing art with those who understand art well).

What's missing with Warhol when interviewing is that need to explain onself in great detail that seems typical of most of us when given the chance. Somehow, despite our different backgrounds, when interviewed, we all sound the same: the pattern of the self given the chance to own the stage. Warhol often seems comfortable with responses of one simple sentence or less, which requires more interviewer participation and increases the tempo of the interviews.

Warhol's sense of humor and desire for productivity (work, work, work) are apparent. No time to waste words.

To make these interviews seem somewhat more concrete, look on the Web for the BBC audios of Warhol, several 1-3 minute segments that allow you to hear him.

After reading these, I understand him perhaps a little more and he seems a great deal less remote and more likeable. I bought this along with "Andy Warhol 365 Takes" from the Warhol Museum staff: these two books complement each other well, this one focused more on the man and the other on his works. Despite his fame, he seems a greater artist than was at first apparent to me.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars very disappointing April 30, 2011

By m morrissey

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

there are some very famous interviews here and nothing terribly interesting besides, when you consider how well AW handled questions evidenced in countless clips in which maybe one or two questions are asked in various documentaries out there (the Barbara Rose one stands out as having especially good give and take)

underwhmeling! better to stick to the Philosophy"" book or Popism or the diaries... this volume I consider skipable