"A Graphic Biography of Warhol"

CREATIVITY & DISRUPTION 

"A Graphic Biography of Warhol"

By Maria Popova via brainpickings.org

Andy Warhol, the iconic Pop artist, presented himself as the vacuous, dumb kid, famously saying, "If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings . and there I am. There's nothing behind it." This book penetrates the surface and explores Warhol's art from his beginnings as a commercial artist to his apotheosis as a society portrait painter. Vivid illustrations reveal Andy's worlds. Who shot Marilyn, and other illustrated anecdotes of Warhol’s fallible humanity.  As a lover of graphic biographies, including those of Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, Richard Feynman, Hunter S. Thompson, Steve Jobs, and the human brain, I was delighted for the release of This is Warhol (public library | IndieBound) — the first installment in a new series of graphic biographies of thirty famous artists by Scottish art historian Catherine Ingram. What makes the concept especially appealing is that, unlike most art history books, which tend to be either dry textbooks to be studied or lavish monograph-artifacts to be owned and admired, Ingram’s approach embodies Tolstoy’s assertion that art is about emotional infectiousness. She tells a living story, at once illuminating and vibrantly human, rather than weaving a static tapestry of facts. The result is a book that’s inviting without compromising its intelligence.