If you're a fan, your bookshelf is crying out for Andy Warhol: 365 Takes. And if you're not, this artfully designed volume may very well turn you into one. Read it straight through or dip in anywhere. Either way, you get an illustrated tour of Warhol's friends, lovers, personal history and obsessions (shoes, religion, jewels, mortality), as well as his art. Organized in a vaguely thematic way that blithely ignores chronology, this compact volume serves up a four-decade feast of creativity in bite-size nuggets: a very Warholian approach. Facing pages juxtapose a Warhol image with a well-chosen morsel of text. Drawn from diverse sources, including The Andy Warhol Diaries, the texts illuminate the images with useful tidbits of insider information. Reproductions of Warhol's work reveal his extraordinary range and inventiveness, from the delicate, lyrical drawing for a jazz record cover from the 1950s to rueful self-portrait photos in drag from the early 1980s. Of course, much of the famous work is here as wellthe Death and Disaster Series, the Brillo boxes, the Three Marilyns, the celebrity portraits of the 1070s, the collaborations with the Velvet Underground. One of the most intriguing aspects of the book is the way it uses Warhol's vast personal collection of ephemera to show how a newspaper headline, shop window or movie star magazine could inform the look of his art. This great compendium of Warholiana is marred only by the occasionally smug, fanzine tone of remarks by The Andy Warhol Museum staff. Theres no need to overstate the case for Warhol; his outsized reputation is secure. -Cathy Curtis
From Publishers Weekly
This "year in the life" of Warhol's artistic and social productions (was there a difference?) actually spans decades. More than 15 years after Warhol's death, his work retains an uncanny ability to make the most banal elements of American life sharp and subversive; these 365 full-page 91/2"×61/2" color illustrations, with pertinent (or impertinent), texts on facing pages) includes the movies (Blow Job, Taylor Mead's Ass), the silk screens (Mao etc.), the entourage (endless) and much more in celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the Warhol museum (in Warhol's birthplace of Pittsburgh, Pa.). The Andy Warhol Diaries and The Philosophy of Andy Warhol are overdrawn on for the text. The illustrations are fresher and include early drawings; film notes and shooting schedules; photographs of Warhol's tape recorder, telephone and wig collection; and a magazine quiz filled out by Warhol. These are counterposed with reproductions of some (but not all) of Warhol's better known completed pieces, such as Campbell's Soup or Elvis 11 Times. However, the inclusion of "contextual" material like photographs of Brooke Shields or the Jacksons could have easily been replaced by more of Warhol's own artwork. While the range reproduced shows Warhol's extraordinary versatility in mediums, whether film, silkscreen, painting or people-collecting, no book can convey the shocking impact of his work. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
The Andy Warhol Museum has been open for 10 years, and its staff continues to marvel at the complexity of Warhol's oeuvre and its resistance to easy interpretation. To reflect this chimerical quality, and the quantity, breadth, and variety of Warhol's provocative multimedia exploration, they have created a chunky volume of 365 images that samples Warhol's drawings, paintings, silk screens, films, photographs, self-portraits, celebrity portraits, and collectibles. The result is a potent survey of Warhol's preoccupations, collaborations, artistic styles, and keen response to a materially abundant yet often emotionally and morally vacuous world. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
Andy Warhol was one of the most compelling figures of the 20th-century art world whose body of work transformed the landscape of contemporary art. He was also a notorious collector who saved practically everything that came his way. In 1994, seven years after the artist's death, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh became the repository not only for a substantial body of his artwork and films, but also for the Time Capsules into which he obsessively deposited a lifetime's worth of ephemera and personal memorabilia. For this book-created in the same format as Abrams' best-selling Earth From Above: 365 Days-the museum has gathered highlights of its collection. Illustrated with almost 400 objects, from paintings to party invitations, the volume also features lively commentaries by the museum's staff as well as quotes from Warhol's own irreverent writings. Timed to coincide with the celebration of the museum's 10-year anniversary, this book will serve as both an introduction to and a handbook for the most extensive collection anywhere of this iconic artist's work.
Andy Warhol 365 Takes: The Andy Warhol Museum Collection FROM THE PUBLISHER
Andy Warhol was one of the most compelling figures of the 20th-century art world whose body of work transformed the landscape of contemporary art. He was also a notorious collector who saved practically everything that came his way. In 1994, seven years after the artist's death, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh became the repository not only for a substantial body of his artwork and films, but also for the Time Capsules into which he obsessively deposited a lifetime's worth of ephemera and personal memorabilia.For this book-created in the same format as Abrams' best-selling Earth From Above: 365 Days-the museum has gathered highlights of its collection. Illustrated with almost 400 objects, from paintings to party invitations, the volume also features lively commentaries by the museum's staff as well as quotes from Warhol's own irreverent writings. Timed to coincide with the celebration of the museum's 10-year anniversary, this book will serve as both an introduction to and a handbook for the most extensive collection anywhere of this iconic artist's work.
SYNOPSIS
Coinciding with an exhibition at New York City's Ronald Feldman Fine Artsentitled Takes and Outtakes from The Andy Warhol Museumthis work contains 365 illustrations of paintings, prints, drawings, and archival materials from the permanent collection of the Warhol Museum as part of its 10th anniversary celebrations. The illustrations are accompanied by quotes from Warhol, museum staffers, and other relevant figures. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
This "year in the life" of Warhol's artistic and social productions (was there a difference?) actually spans decades. More than 15 years after Warhol's death, his work retains an uncanny ability to make the most banal elements of American life sharp and subversive; these 365 full-page 9-1/2" x 6-1/2" color illustrations, with pertinent (or impertinent), texts on facing pages) includes the movies (Blow Job, Taylor Mead's Ass), the silk screens (Mao etc.), the entourage (endless) and much more in celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the Warhol museum (in Warhol's birthplace of Pittsburgh, Pa.). The Andy Warhol Diaries and The Philosophy of Andy Warhol are overdrawn on for the text. The illustrations are fresher and include early drawings; film notes and shooting schedules; photographs of Warhol's tape recorder, telephone and wig collection; and a magazine quiz filled out by Warhol. These are counterposed with reproductions of some (but not all) of Warhol's better known completed pieces, such as Campbell's Soup or Elvis 11 Times. However, the inclusion of "contextual" material like photographs of Brooke Shields or the Jacksons could have easily been replaced by more of Warhol's own artwork. While the range reproduced shows Warhol's extraordinary versatility in mediums, whether film, silkscreen, painting or people-collecting, no book can convey the shocking impact of his work. (June) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Intended to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, this gift-book addition to the constant flow of compilations on the artist features both major and minor works boldly illustrated in a spare format, along with hundreds of Warhol letters, drawings, source material, and film stills. Its appeal resides in the museum's unparalleled collection of ephemera, including gossipy notes, business cards, vintage magazines, and invitations obsessively saved. The brief texts accompanying the various items are little more than captions or bite-sized reprinted bits of quotes and existing writings. Devotees of Andyworld will be diverted by the catalog, though libraries would do well to look elsewhere for serious Warhol scholarship.-Doug McClemont, New York Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.