Customer Reviews

Andy Warhol (Penguin Lives)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As a Warhol scholar, and someone who has read dozens of books and essays about him, I would heartily recommend this as an _addition_ to the other works. It's not really a biography in the traditional sense at all, and it certainly shouldn't be the first or only thing you read.

If you prefer a clinical, detached, "just the facts, ma'am" approach - skip this. If you are terrified by 20th century philosophy and psychoanalysis - skip this. If you find it easier to disparage strawman concepts like "postmodernism" rather than actually reading and thinking about continental philosophy (yes, I know it's difficult) - skip this. And judging from the reviews, if you're terribly uncomfortable with sexual themes or "swishiness" in art or writing - forget it.

The book is excellent. The prose is often rich and compelling - my copy is dogeared from all the passages I've marked - and the philosophical and psychoanalytic themes, while not developed, can be very suggestive. Koestenbaum has an excellent reading of many of the films - perhaps the most important and underexamined aspect of his work. Warhol's art is certainly not reduced to postmodernist cliches (as it has been so often elsewhere) nor is it reduced to being "about" his sexual identity. In a striking change, Warhol is not considered as a celebrity or a monster, but like the frail yet determined individual he was, the complex and multifaceted life he led, and the gorgeous, troubling, powerful art he produced. If you don't know anything about Warhol, if you've haven't seen much of his work or any of his films, don't start with this book - you'll be confused and dissappointed. But if you already think you know all about Warhol, and you read this book -slowly - while looking at his work, I think you've find it an incredibly helpful guide.

For real reviews, ...read Hal Foster's review in the London Review of Books

This is an important book, the first biography of Warhol to put his films at the center of the vast project that was Warhol's life and work, life transformed into work. Rather than rely on received ideas, Koestenbaum has availed himself of the overwhelming Warhol archive (from time capsules to scrapbooks); actually watched and considered all the Warhol movies currently restored and available for viewing; and looked at the paintings and sculptures--which is how he can, in lightning bright prose, provide a new beginning for thinking about Warhol. No familiar folksy "Andy" but an artist as strange and daunting as any other this country has produced. Few writers on Warhol ever bother to LOOK AT (and READ) what Warhol did; Koestenbaum does look, and his looking becomes the basis for his illuminating, trenchant commentary. (The electric chic of his sentences is as theoretically bracing as his critical observations.) Too many think they know who or what Warhol was/is. Bravely, Koestenbaum allows his thought as writing to be as new, estranging and probing as Warhol's art. "Ur-sexual" Warhol working non-stop to negotiate the glamourous nothingness and Ronellian stupidity called being or "life": this is the Warhol Koestenbaum pushes, star-like, into the klieg light, finally ready for his close-up.

This book makes you care again for Andy Warhol. In too many books and articles about Warhol, the authors seem to have some sort of vendetta against him and just want to tear him and his work down. Wayne Koestenbaum cares a great deal for Warhol, and his work. It is his work that is central to this look at his life, though from the start there is no denial of his homosexuality which Warhol himself desperately tried to keep somewhat hidden. You should have something of a familiarity with Warhol's work and life, this isn't really a good introduction to it, but it is the best interpretation of it that I have ever read. It is written with a great deal of sympathy for one of the 20th Century's greatest artists, who most critics - both hetro and homo - try to denigrate and destroy.

Wayne Koestenbaum's biography of Andy Warhol offers an interesting overview of the artist's life and work, focusing primarily on his creative efforts during the 1960s, when he first achieved fame. The book seems to lay a foundation for Warhol's sexual orientation and experiences as a child being the basis for not only his creativity, but also his perspectives and "quirks" throughout his life. Indeed, in some aspects the biography seems a psychoanalysis of Warhol the man, and sometimes takes liberties with that analysis that go beyond what might be prudent. But that notwithstanding, the biography is very interesting, informative and well-written, given the somewhat unique character and lifestyle of the subject.

In the aftermath of his untimely and negligent death, Andy Warhol's star continues to rise as one of the greatest and most creative artists of modern times, surpassing even the creative genius of Picasso, Dali, Escher and such like . The intrigue grows when one recognizes that much remains to be discovered about Warhol the artist--many of his works, film efforts and other dalliances remain unseen by the public to this day.

For a quick, somewhat cursory but fascinating study of Andy Warhol's life and work, Wayne Koestenbaum's biography is worth the read.

It is not an academic treatise and should not be read as one. I found it a compelling read once I got into it and that it opened up Andy Warhol's `oeuvre' to me somewhat. Somewhat voyeristic and subjective in attitude but that is a fair price for the humanity and accessibility of the journey. Did not experience the writing as one-dimensional or as homo-fixated as some of the reviews suggest it to be.

This is one of my very favorite books. Wayne Kostenbaum's trademark rococo prose enlightens and delights. Clearly enraptured with his subject, he pulls out all the stops: free-associative, linguistically complex interpretations of Warhol's subconscious motivations and sexual neuroses abound. I cheerfully allow the author every metaphorical , grammatical, and Freudian excess, because here, at last, is someone writing about the 20th Century's most notorious and influential artist as if he were human. Significantly, Kostenbaum ushers the reader into an intimate, reverent viewing of the several important, rarely seen, and shamefully under-appreciated films Warhol made the 60s. You will either love this book, and want to revisit it again and again, or loathe it and not even be able to finish it. And, I bet those of you in the latter category are not all that engaging in flirty conversation over an after-dinner drink.

but he makes it impossible. Some think his prose elegant (he obviously does); I find it precious. Koestenbaum poses as an old-fashioned gay aesthete, but he has really just spiced up postmodernism with queeny affectations...or maybe he's propping up his outmoded queeniness with postmodern affectations. Either way, he has an annoying habit of looking in every puffed-up sentence as though he's saying something profound when he's really saying nothing at all--it's just word-play, without even the justification of cleverness. The book has no original insights, yet pretends to them in every line. But that's postmodernism for you, even when it gets up in the drag of nostalgia for belles lettres. By the way, I was puzzled and amused by the amazon reviewer who expresses his disgust with "this kind of writing," which is "irrelevant" to today's troubled world...I wonder if he meant belles lettres or postmodernist drivel. I suspect he meant the former, but I identify Koestenbaum with the latter and heartily agree with him. Just read Oscar Wilde's critical dialogues instead--open up "The Decay of Lying," you'll be howling with laughter in minutes, and left with insights to reflect on for days.

This book got the treatment reserved for about one in every two hundred books: didn't finish it, though I made it through six of the nine chapters and the bibliography.
Every book in the Penguin Lives series (and I've read them all) concerns someone of lasting interest, and the question each biographer should answer is why this is so. In this book, the only answer the author has is that Warhol was gay. It's his answer to every question about Warhol. Why did Warhol start the Factory? He was gay. Why did Warhol move to NYC? He was gay. Why did Warhol live with his mother? He was gay. Why did Warhol paint soup cans? He was gay. Why did he make weird, pointless films? He was gay. Sort of like all the answers to a test on creationism would be God.
It was also rather disorganized, sort of like a cross between a gossip magazine and a laundry list. And it seemed chatty.
I've read many of the favorable reviews and if you liked the book, good. Don't hate me because I didn't. And I'm not a homophobe: a sibling I love dearly is gay.

Dear Andy Warhol Fan/Friend/Interested Party,

Don't waste your time or money on this sad biography of Andy Warhol. It's boring with a capital b. Wayne Koestenbaum is more interested in impressing you with his fancy vocabulary and trivial facts he has gathered on Andy than giving you a complete biography of Andy Warhol.

In the introduction, the author who never met Andy Warhol, discusses imaginary conversations he has had with Warhol beyond the grave. Yes, really - it's that bad.

Frankly, I didn't know very much about Andy Warhol until I read this book. I learned how sexual and abstract (to use one of his favorite words) he really was. The book is a nice overview. It makes me want to learn more about him and see more of his work. There is a wonderful source reference at the end of the book for anyone who may want to continue research and study of WARHOL. He definitely made a mark in the art world for the 20th Century. ....