Pop - by Tony Scherman & David Dalton (Paperback)

About the Book

Scherman and Dalton offer a major reassessment of one of the most influential and controversial American artists of the second half of the 20th century: Andy Warhol.

Book Synopsis

Pop: The Genius of Andy Warhol is a groundbreaking reassessment of the most influential and controversial American artist of the second half of the 20th century. Writers Tony Scherman and David Dalton disentangle the myths of the great pop artist from the man he truly was, and offer a vivid, entertaining, and provocative look at Warhol's personal and artistic evolution. Drawing on brand new sources--including extensive new interviews and insight from those who knew him best--Pop offers the most dynamic, comprehensive portrait ever written of the man who changed the way we see the world.

From the Back Cover

To his critics, he was the cynical magus of a movement that debasedhigh art and reduced it to a commodity. To his admirers, he was the mostimportant artist since Picasso. As the quintessential Pop artist, Andy Warhol razed the barrier between high and low culture.

Pop disentangles the myths of Warhol from the man he truly was, offering a vivid, entertaining, and provocative look at the legendary artist's personal and artistic evolution during his most productive and innovative years. It is a dynamic, groundbreaking portrait of the man who changed the way we see the world.

Review Quotes

"A comprehensive reappraisal. . . . Scherman and Dalton marshal a staggering amount of research and copious interviews with Warhol's associates to provide new insights into the creation of the famous images of soup cans and soda bottles, serial celebrity portraits, multimedia happenings and experimental films that alternately energized and horrified the fine-art establishment. Though the authors concentrate mostly on the work itself, it is so inextricably tied to Warhol's personality that a psychological portrait of the artist emerges. . . . Both an indelible portrait of the artist as a weird young man and an elegant survey of one of the most vital and revolutionary periods in American popular culture-a richly detailed, kaleidoscopic treat." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A comprehensive reappraisal. . . . Both an indelible portrait of the artist as a weird young man and an elegant survey of one of the most vital and revolutionary periods in American popular culture-a richly detailed, kaleidoscopic treat." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[Draws] for the first time on full use of the archives of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. . . . [A] crazy, amazing, compelling story. This book does it justice." - Maria Puente, USA Today
"A sharp-eyed chronicle of those unsettled days in the early sixties when everything was up for grabs. . . . Pulling back the curtain, this fascinating book takes the true measure of Andy Warhol, the pale, enigmatic Wizard of Odd." - Fred Goodman, author of The Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen and the Head-on Collision of Rock and Commerce
"If you want to know how Andrew Warhola became Andy Warhol, read this book." - Barbara Rose, Author of American Art Since 1900
"Scholarly, impeccably researched and well written, POP immerses us in the fast-moving, dissolute life of Andy Warhol. . . . No one could, or can, be indifferent to Warhol. This book gives us a deeply insightful portrait of the tormented man behind the myth." - Antony Penrose, director of the Lee Miller Archive and the Penrose Collection
"Scherman, a music writer, and Dalton, an art writer who briefly worked as an assistant to Warhol, entertainingly trace the artist rise from sickly, poor art student to a wealthy, prize winning Manhattan advertising designer to the most unlikely avant-garde painter of all time." - Fred Kaplan, Washington Post
"Illuminating." - Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times
"An excellent book, a work of great clarity and concision that makes Warhol (and rock critics) feel fresh again." - Deborah Solomon, New York Times Book Review
"Scherman and Dalton can't claim to staking new territory, but their book is strengthened by concentrating on Warhol as an artist, seen within the context of the changes that shook the gallery and museum world from the late '50s through most of the 1960s." - Robert Hunt, St. Louis Beacon
"Riveting.... Exhaustively researched, seductively written." - Michael Slenske, InterviewMagazine.com
"Mr. 15 minutes of fame gets 441 well-researched pages." - People
"Vividly evokes the moment when the macho painters of the 50's were dethroned by a gay graphic designer from Pittsburgh.... The authors memorably describe some of Warhol's antecedents--'Duchamp's art-life borders'--and capture the changing of America's cultural guard.... This compulsive read gets at why Warhol remains under our skin two decades after his death." - R.C Baker, Village Voice
"Andy was fascinated with the speed and acceleration of life. This book beautifully conveys the sixties and his inner world. This is as close as you are going to get to the enigmatic Andy that I knew and liked." - James Rosenquist
"No stone is left unturned in this insightful, entertaining biography, which also offers a fascinating account of the crazy visionary sixties decade. A must-read, POP is a fun trip into the complex world of the madman plastic inevitable genius that was Andy Warhol." - Robert Heide, playwright
"What a feast of deep and penetrating investigation! Out of this wealth of fascinating detail-thousands of stories, observations, conversations-Tony Scherman and David Dalton have beautifully mapped out the making of the remarkable life and art of one of the greatest rebel heroes and innovative liberators in art history." - Tony Shafrazi
"[A] fascinating study of Warhol's rise from commercial artist to the most celebrated painter and filmmaker in 1960s America." - Richard Dorment, New York Review of Books
"Here is Andy Warhol in full: open to suggestion, voyeuristic, given to 'gallows humor, ' driven by 'revenge, anger, and scorn, ' and determined to glorify the commonplace, 'infuriate the critics. . . . puzzle the public, and titillate the media.' With unprecedented access to remarkable archival materials, the gleanings of 139 interviews, extraordinary analytic powers, and a mutual gift for compelling prose, distinguished arts writers Scherman and Dalton, who knew Warhol, present the most forthright and nuanced portrait yet of the artist. . . . Scherman and Dalton reveal the essential Warhol in all his contradictions, torment, calculation, and brilliance." - Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)