Andy Warhol Heaven & Hell - Softcover

These two unusual new books, which celebrate the uncontested ambiguity of Warhol's personal and artistic identity, are only moderately successful in their aim. Stuckey tries dutifully to explain Warhol's creative collaborations with younger artists and his return to early Pop imagery and similar ventures as a positive response to the angst of the 1980s. What emerges is a sketchy portrait of an uncertain man--a portrait that fits the already published diary entries of the time. Stuckey's essay is brief so that the catalog can concentrate on an effective visual juxtaposition of source material with finished works. However, an ever-present cloud of tentativeness hangs over these late works; it seems as if Warhol was assembling a sort of retro-Pop collage for creations that never materialized. Yau, a notable poet and creative writer, jumps into the characterization of Warhol's works and their intentions as if he was taking part in a street fight. The author offers a string of subtly interconnected polemics against those who would question Warhol's combined fame and notoriety. Each short chapter, or section, veers from one point to another. However, Yau is building a case; he seeks to show how art critics, art world luminaries, and an accepting public encouraged Warhol in self-mocking parody, illusionism, and continual redefinition. These two additions to the extensive literature on Warhol are most appropriate for academic and specialized libraries.
- Paula A. Baxter, NYPL
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In his foreword to this volume, Warhol's longtime associate Fremont contends that the years preceding the pop artist's unexpected death in 1987 saw a resurgence in the quality of his creative output. The 80-odd pages of illustrations that follow prove him right. These provocative paintings of Warhol's last years exhibit a wide range of styles, all represented here: from simple pieces based on advertising motifs--featuring "wholesome" hamburgers, Nikes and other products--that recall and comment on his work in the early 1960s, to intricate collaborations with 1980s superstar artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente; from versions of Leonardo's Last Supper that evince both irony and reverence, to rough anatomical diagrams that shock by the directness of their portrayals of the body. A sensitive essay by Stuckey, curator of 20th-century painting and sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago, traces Warhol's final artistic itinerary. Richardson's ( A Life of Picasso ) moving eulogy warmly recalls Warhol's spirituality, exploring his two sides as "callous observer" and "saintly simpleton."
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.