Warhol
Written by Blake Gopnik
Narrated by Graham Halstead
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
The definitive biography of a fascinating and paradoxical figure, one of the most influential artists of his—or any—age.
To this day, mention the name “Andy Warhol” to almost anyone and you’ll hear about his famous images of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. But though Pop Art became synonymous with Warhol’s name and dominated the public’s image of him, his life and work are infinitely more complex and multi-faceted than that.
In Warhol, esteemed art critic Blake Gopnik takes on Andy Warhol in all his depth and dimensions. “The meanings of his art depend on the way he lived and who he was,” as Gopnik writes. “That’s why the details of his biography matter more than for almost any cultural figure,” from his working-class Pittsburgh upbringing as the child of immigrants to his early career in commercial art to his total immersion in the “performance” of being an artist, accompanied by global fame and stardom—and his attempted assassination.
The extent and range of Warhol’s success, and his deliberate attempts to thwart his biographers, means that it hasn’t been easy to put together an accurate or complete image of him. But in this biography, unprecedented in its scope and detail as well as in its access to Warhol’s archives, Gopnik brings to life a figure who continues to fascinate because of his contradictions—he was known as sweet and caring to his loved ones but also a coldhearted manipulator; a deep-thinking avant-gardist but also a true lover of schlock and kitsch; a faithful churchgoer but also an eager sinner, skeptic, and cynic.
Wide-ranging and immersive, Warhol gives us the most robust and intricate picture to date of a man and an artist who consistently defied easy categorization and whose life and work continue to profoundly affect our culture and society today.
Blake Gopnik
Blake Gopnik, one of North America’s leading arts writers, has served as art and design critic at Newsweek, and as chief art critic at the Washington Post and Canada’s Globe and Mail. In 2017, he was a Cullman Center Fellow in residence at the New York Public Library, and in 2015 he held a fellowship at the Leon Levy Center for Biography at City University of New York. He has a PhD in art history from Oxford University and is a regular contributor to the New York Times.
Related to Warhol
Related audiobooks
Everybody Thought We Were Crazy: Dennis Hopper, Brooke Hayward, and 1960s Los Angeles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inside Studio 54 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Madonna Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I Blame Dennis Hopper: And Other Stories from a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emotional Rescue: Essays on Love, Loss, and Life—With a Soundtrack Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5My Place in the Sun: Life in the Golden Age of Hollywood and Washington Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Face It: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Contender Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Club King: My Rise, Reign, and Fall in New York Nightlife Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sinatra and Me: In the Wee Small Hours Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Icons and Instincts: Choreographing and Directing Entertainment's Biggest Stars Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStill Talking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elton John: The Biography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrying to Float: Chronicles of a Girl in the Chelsea Hotel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5On Bowie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Drama of Celebrity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJanis: Her Life and Music Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Storms: My Life with Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bowie: The Biography Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5To Hell and Back: My Life in Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers, in the Words of the Last Man Standing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Islander: My Life in Music and Beyond Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Frank & Ava: In Love and War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Boys in the Trees: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When They Were Boys: The True Story of the Beatles' Rise to the Top Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Artists and Musicians For You
IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5More Myself: A Journey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woman in Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Effin' Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Adversity for Sale: Ya Gotta Believe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Me: Elton John Official Autobiography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dolly Parton: The Life of a Legendary American Singer, Actor, and Businesswoman Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Rememberings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not That Fancy: Simple Lessons on Living, Loving, Eating, and Dusting Off Your Boots Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Storyteller: Expanded: ...Because There's More to the Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) in Song Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leonardo da Vinci Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robin Williams: When the Laughter Stops 1951 - 2014 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Like a River: Finding the Faith and Strength to Move Forward after Loss and Heartache Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Love Story: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mercury and Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Scar Tissue Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chita: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary: Greenlights: by Matthew McConaughey: Key Takeaways, Summary & Analysis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die: Musings from the Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Share My Life: A Journey of Love, Faith and Redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Autobiography of Gucci Mane Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Marathon Don't Stop: The Life and Times of Nipsey Hussle Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing the Legends: The Lethal Danger of Celebrity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related categories
Reviews for Warhol
6 ratings0 reviews