Product Description

ANDY WARHOL "GIANT" SIZE is a spectacular visual biography of the life and career of Andy Warhol. Weighing in at 15 pounds, this enormous book is packed with 2,000 images and documents, many rare or previously unpublished.

Taking its inspiration from Warhol’s over-the-top nature, ANDY WARHOL "GIANT" SIZE depicts the major events, people, works and moments in the artist’s life told in chronological order by subject. As Warhol almost never threw anything away (from restaurant receipts to postcards), the featured material in the book has been painstakingly compiled. As the publisher of The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné, Phaidon was granted unprecedented access to an array of public and private image and memorabilia archives and collections, including the Andy Warhol Foundation in New York and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh as well as the holdings of many Warhol collaborators, friends, and photographers of the period.

The large-format of ANDY WARHOL "GIANT" SIZE enables the reader to explore in detail hundreds of fascinating photographs, letters, personal correspondence, art works, film stills, tickets, receipts, celebrity head shots, notes, press clippings and ephemera all featured in this one of a kind publication. The book also features illuminating texts by insiders Bruno Bischofberger, Ronnie Cutrone, David Dalton, Kenneth Goldsmith, Ivan Karp and Peggy Phelan.

What is unique about ANDY WARHOL "GIANT" SIZE is that it provides fascinating insight into the public and private life of Warhol and in many cases also reveals the stories behind his art works. The book provides amazing comparisons between his work and his life that have never been demonstrated visually in such a way before. For example, it not only features Warhol’s famous "Mao" series, but also includes ephemera from a 1982 trip to China (his passport, boarding pass, a souvenir from his hotel, etc.) alongside a photo of Warhol standing in front of the Forbidden City in Beijing with an official Mao portrait in the background.

This important new publication includes a staggering quantity and array of colorful material including: Warhol’s birth certificate, citing Andrew ‘Warhola’ was born on 8/6/28 in Pittsburgh; childhood photographs of his family; the magazine tear sheet showing the first article he illustrated for Glamour when he arrived in New York in 1949; numerous photos of Warhol with his mother; artworks for gold shoes he created in the 1950s; a letter from the MOMA dated 1959 in which the Director of the Museum’s Collections rejects a work of art Warhol offered them as a gift; photographs of Warhol posing with Edie Sedgwick in a New York fashion shoot; personal letters from Mick Jagger and Liz Taylor; pictures of Warhol in the office working on Interview; pictures of Warhol private views; a series of shots of Warhol in drag; the program from his Memorial Mass on 4/1/87 and his gravestone.

ANDY WARHOL "GIANT" SIZE is the only publication available that features Warhol’s entire life, work and words in one book. The visual biography offers a behind-the-scenes look at the New York art scene of the 1950s to the 1980s, and provides a new perspective on an artist who continues to be endlessly fascinating to those inside and outside of the art world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45540 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 624 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. With its beautiful layouts, pin-sharp reproductions and sparkling texts, this enormous 15-pound book is worth every penny of its price. The volume kicks off with an illuminating essay by Dave Hickey (Air Guitar) that traces the development of Warhol's genre-mocking style to his childhood in industrial Pittsburgh. Poverty forced Warhol to hone the instincts of a salesman, Hickey suggests, and neighborhood tales about Czech folk hero David Schrapnel taught him his favorite artistic method: get it exactly wrong. "Exactly wrong demonstrated that you knew what was exactly right and you were doing it wrong for the right reasons," Hickey explains. "Thus, in his impoverished early days as a fashion illustrator, Warhol dressed so wretchedly that... colleagues suspected him of being rich." The volume covers both Warhol's numerous accomplishments (in commercial illustration, advertising, painting, film) and his transformation of the New York art scene so thoroughly that even fans will gain new appreciation for Warhol's enduring influence. Longer texts by Kenneth Goldsmith, David Dalton, Ivan Karp, Peggy Phelan, Ronnie Cutrone and Bruno Bischofberger reward sustained reading, but for those who prefer browsing, the 16"×12" reproductions and the quotations of Warhol's many witticisms will be enough. (Mar.)
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About the Author
Dave Hickey wrote the introduction to ANDY WARHOL "GIANT" SIZE. He is one of the top art critics and analysts of Western culture writing today. He is the author of the popular "Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy" (1998) and has written for Rolling Stone, ArtForum, Interview, Harper's, Vanity Fair, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. Hickey has been an executive director of Art in America and a contributing editor at The Village Voice. He is the former director of A Clean Well-Lighted Place gallery in Austin and Reese Palley Gallery in New York. He is currently Professor of Art Theory and Criticism at the University of Las Vegas.

Steven Bluttal is the photo editor of ANDY WARHOL "GIANT" SIZE. He is an independent curator, archivist and editor based in New York. He is the co-author of the book Halston (Phaidon, 2001).

Customer Reviews

My back aches! in a good way!
Marvelous! Just marvelous! If you are a fan of Andy - buy this book! I have not figured out how to read it on my lap yet...it is GIANT - just like the publishers promised...I mean HUGE!
But worth every penny! A beautiful compilation of Andy's quirks, life, salesmanship and art!

awsome purchase
This book is worth every penny, the photography is incredible, It's perfect!!!!!!!!!!

Truly Andy Warhol
This is by far the greatest Andy Warhol book you can possibly buy, period. My copy hasent come yet, but I cant even begin to describe the enchanting and miraculous times that I've spent with this book upstairs at Powell's. Loads and loads of pictures and little blurbs. It's like taking a time machine back into the 60's and the becoming Warhol's apprentice, its great. Of course the best part... ITS HUGE !!! Definialty worth coughing up the dough for.