Andy Warhol: Pop Art Painter (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Andy Warhol: Pop Art Painter Deborah Stevenson Rubin, Susan Goldman Andy Warhol: Pop Art Painter. Abrams, 200648 p illus. with photographs ISBN 0-8109-5477-X$18.95 R Gr. 4-7 This visually appealing Warhol biography focuses on the artist's youth in Pittsburgh with his beloved mother and his early development and career in New York; compact descriptions of his life and art are enhanced by quotes from Rubin's interviews with Warhol's friends and relatives as well as extensive literary research. Unfortunately, the account mysteriously stops in the early 1960s, relegating the details of his last nearly quarter century to a timeline (which is oddly stretched over nine pages [End Page 188] that could have been better used to describe Warhol's film career, shooting, and other later experiences), but the compact text contains a considerable amount of information. Design is dramatic, with background colors on each spread keyed to reproduced images of Warhol's work; possibly even more dramatic are the images of Warhol himself, especially a Sandy Skoglund-like view of the artist in his foil-covered studio in The Factory. This isn't going to knock Greenberg and Jordan's Andy Warhol: Prince of Pop (BCCB 12/04) off its perch as the touchstone Warhol work for young people and readers will need to consult that for information on his dramatic later years, but this is a visually arresting introduction that will entice readers into understanding a bit more about this icon of the era. The book concludes with a glossary, endnotes, an extensive list of resources, a brief author's note, and a list of some museums displaying Warhol's work. Copyright © 2006 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois