Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again
Whitney Museum of American Art
Even the die-hard pop art head would have lost count on how many books have been released on their idol.
Every fact of the man, his approach and immense and still reverberating impact on the art scene has been the subject of exhibitions, tributes and books over the decades and it has been well established that the phenomenon that made Andy Warhol is an icon in the pantheon of modern art, independent from subjective tastes or criticisms.
Warhol’s emissions are omnipresent to this day and “From A to B and Back Again” is an encyclopaedic take on his genesis, his hey days and his more obscure art, which sheds light on his talent as an illustrator and craftsman as well as documenting how he developed his intuitive “smarts.”
What becomes apparent through the beautifully illustrated book is Warhol’s hand for picking a subject that carried a deeper going meaning on a societal scale as well as having an x factor that added an intangible layer of something that one could not quite figure out, which is a key ingredient for all great art. Manoeuvring between opposing ends of spectrum, i.e. being heralded as the wunderkind that brings the future of art while at the same time being stigmatized as the one that “killed painting”.
“From A to B and Back Again” accompanies the current Warhol extravaganza at the Whitney Museum of American Art through March 31, 2019, whose senior curator was at the helm of this celebration of Andy Warhol in book form, embedded in a range of not only essays but also anecdotes that shed light on the importance of his oeuvre from a myriad of angles and, more interestingly, on the personality of the man.
An extensive, detailed retrospective and an excellent monograph with high quality reproductions of his art that will appeal to both the aficionado of one of the most emulated artists as well as the uninitiated.
