Warhol: The Biography [Paperback]

Victor Bockris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 12, 2003

Artist, filmmaker, magazine publisher, instigator of Pop Art, Andy Warhol (19281987) used his canvasses of dollar bills, soup cans, and celebrities to subvert distinctions between high and popular culture. His spectacular career encompassed the underground scene as well as the equally deviant worlds of politics, show business, and high society. Warhol is the definitive chronicle of Warhol's storied life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The best so far.... The one to read for knowledge of Warhol the man." -- New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Victor Bockris has written about the cultural heroes of the twentieth century for over thirty years. He is the author or co-author of major biographies on Andy Warhol, Patti Smith, The Velvet Underground, and many others. He lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; 75th anniversary ed edition (August 12, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 030681272X
• ISBN-13: 978-0306812729
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #796,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bockris is sympathetic, underawed and not sycophantic., September 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Warhol (Paperback)

Victor Bockris' biography is sympathetic to Warhol's supposed contrived personality. The reader gets the impression that the author, who had a personal association with Warhol, really understood the facination his subject maintained for his adopted country (the U.S.) throughout most of his working life. While others tend to dismiss Warhol as a simple poseur Bockris relates his wide-eyed enthusiasm for the consumer society. While some have suggested he was manipulative, this biography suggests that he was slightly naive. Most of his life is covered here and, although there is documented proof of some interesting associations that are not touched upon, in general the work is broad in its scope and the reader will discover that the most notorious pop artist of all had far greater depth than his blank features and fickle comments suggested. It is also a feast for those interested in good gossip and the social history of the 60s and 70s.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Warhol Primer, October 10, 2001

By 

Nathan (North Hollywood, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Warhol (Paperback)

As a huge fan of this fascinating man who blured the line between art and commerce, I was looking for a well written book
thicker than a brick that would reveal once and for all the mystery that is Andy Warhol. Im still looking, the definitive Warhol bio is yet to be written it seems, but in the meantime I'll settle for this Bockris book which is a sound overall portrait of the artist and his life. Starting from his poverty and illness stricken childhood in an industrial town in Pennsylvania the author breezily tours the reader through his
college life, and his subsequent move to New York to become a highly successful (and paid) graphic artist, before establishing himself as one of the founding pioneers of pop art. From there we take rollercoaster ride through his film making years at the Factory, his subsequent shooting, and the time he spent as a socialite and portait artist in the last two decades of his life. Some light is shed on the issues concerning Andy's sexuality, Catholicism, monophobia, work ethic, short lived
intimate relationships, shopoholism, and his seemingly aloof public persona.

Though Bockris rightly bestows more pages to Warhols peak years as an artist in the sixties, he skims the later decades of his life. As with his Lou Reed biography, Bockris has a tendency to demonize his subjects towards the final chapters of his works. Try as his he might here, his weakly supported insinuations of Warhol as a cold and manipulative character are more a reflection on the authors own
feelings of insecurity, rather than their being any intrinsic truth in the matter. There is a middle way between sycophantism and character debasement, and Bockris obviously hasn't found it. It's adequately written, albeit unimaginatively, and it takes real effort on part of the reader to stop turning the pages. As it stands, a fine Warhol primer, but for those with an inquiring mind, this book will probably raise more questions than it answers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable, January 26, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Warhol (Paperback)

The first half of this book is invaluable for the intimate infomation that it gives on Andy Warhol's early years. It is very sensitively written and thoroughly engaging, though the latter years are sort of run through at the speed of sound. That would be the only criticsm I have of this book but you can flesh out the facts (from Andy's view) by getting a copy of the Andy Warhol Diaries. Otherwise it's a really great book.