Customer Reviews

Warhol from the Sonnabend Collection

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This book is the catalogue for an early 2009 exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in NYC. At the time, the Sonnabend heirs had to part with most of the family's fantastic Pop Art collection in order to be able to pay inheritance taxes. Gagosian was reported to have acquired part of the collection, especially the Warhol paintings, and one of the outcomes of that deal was the exhibition and the wonderful book that accompanied it. It is indeed a gem of an artbook, replete with previously unpublished documents on the relationship between Warhol and Ileana Sonnabend (Leo Castelli's former wife and herself a famed dealer). The illustrations are of a very high quality, especially the fold-outs that show the installation of the works at the various historical shows held at the Sonnabend gallery in Paris in the early 1960's; those fold-outs are fac-similes of the original catalogues of the shows and they are irreplaceable documents on the early moments of Warhol's career. Also, as an introduction, the book opens with two essays, one by John Richardson on Warhol's works from the early sixties (which form the bulk of the collection), such as the Jacky Kennedy series or the Death and Disaster series, and the other by Brenda Richardson, dwelling on Warhol's sometimes bumpy relationship with Ileana Sonnabend, but also with Leo Castelli or Michael Sonnabend (Ileana's second husband). The text is accompanied by reproductions of hand-written letters from the dealer to the artist which, today, are moving documents of a major art movement in the making.

I have rarely been so favourably impressed with an artbook and this one is undoubtedly destined to become a collector's piece. Highly recommended.

From The Gagosian Gallery

A renowned gallerist and collector, the late Ileana Sonnabend acquired an impressive collection of seminal work directly from the Warhol studio at the time of its making.

Sonnabend was an early and fervent supporter of Warhol, and held three important exhibitions of his work at her Paris gallery, including the series Death and Disasters (1964), Flowers (1965), and Thirteen Most Wanted Men (1967).

This beautifully illustrated book includes essays by Picasso biographer John Richardson and leading Warhol scholar Brenda Richardson, who was a close friend of Sonnaben's. Her essay is an insightful portrait of the highly regarded dealer and her relationship with Warhol. The book is illuminated by previously unpublished private letters and includes stand-alone facsimile reproductions of the exhibition catalogues, originally published by Galerie Ileana Sonnabend.

Reviewed by IR Staff

**IR gives this book 4.5 stars**