A good early biography of Warhol | Warhol: The Biography

Warhol as creep? | Warhol: The Biography | Victor Bockris

books:


	• Warhol: The Biography Victor Bockris Da Capo Press, 2003 - 624 pages average customer review:based on 8 reviews view larger image
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A good, not great, biography

Now out in a new edition, Victor Bockris' WARHOL is a very solidly written and researched biography. In particular, the first half creates an extremely detailed portrait of Warhol's Pittsburgh youth; this adds a tremendous amount of context and depth to Warhol's own work, and the meanings and symbolisms of that work will gain new clarity after reading through some of Bockris' book.

Unfortunately, the book gets less detailed and more gossipy later on - Warhol's many flaws are underlined again and again, but Warhol surrounded himself with other highly creative people who launched interesting careers of their own - Paul Morrissey and Lou Reed both spring to mind - and Bockris does little or no investigation of Warhol's influence upon them, and any actual ideas just seem to get lost here amid the varied bits of gossip.

-David Alston

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A good early biography of Warhol

Although this Warhol biography was only written two years after his death, it does contain much interesting marterial about the man. Primarily focusing on his pop-art peak in the 1960's and his stint in moviemaking, the book gives little details about the final decade about Warhol's life. Regardless, this book will give you much insight into the man, as well as the groupies and various hangers-on who always accompanied Warhol.

Warhol as creep?

Bockris was a friend of Warhol, at least for several years. He shares a lot of detail but what seems to stand out in this biography in particular is that:

* Warhol had a lot of boyfriends, none for long, and he was ridiculously jealous.
* Warhol used people no end and generally didn't pay those who worked for him.

So I was left at the end with a decidedly negative impression of Warhol.

I'm suspicious. It didn't seem that Bockris explained how someone so creepy was able to get some many talented people to work with and hang out for him. All to be a part of the Warhol scene? For expectations of fame, money, connections? I don't know. I do know companies with a little liked leader. Still, it left me wondering if Bockris had something in for Warhol. I don't doubt there's some truth in Bockris' account of Warhol with boyfriends and assistants but I can't tell how much. Instead of resolving who Warhol was, this book makes me also wonder who Bockris is and leaves me seeking other books to learn more about Warhol.

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Often Interesting

This biography is extremely interesting at times. I had never read a Warhol biography before I read this, and it provided a lot of great details, especially involving his early life.
The problem, though, is that it seems that sex seems to permeate everything. Perhaps Warhol was a man obsessed with it, as the author seems to suggest, but does that really call for the explicit details of his sexual activities to be included? Seriously....does it? I think not. After a particularly detailed description, I found myself thinking, "Ok, I get it, the man had a foot fetish. Can't we just leave it at that?" I must add that I am no Puritan by any stretch of the imagination, but there is something quite unsettling about Warhol to begin with (at least for me), and when you add sexual detail to it, it just gets....icky. If you don't have a problem with this, though (I'm sure some people might even especially want to read it with these details included), go for it. It is highly informative, and Warhol was nothing if not compelling.

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Invaluable

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.

The only major biography of Andy Warhol, reissued to coincide with his 75th birthday.

Artist, filmmaker, magazine publisher, instigator of Pop Art, Andy Warhol (1928-1987) 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.

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