“Warhol is the Raphael of American mass society that gives a surface to every depth of the image, making that image immediately available, ready for consumption like every product that crowds our daily life. In his aesthetic transformation, he develops an original classicism. This is how the advertising of the form leads to the epiphany, that is the apparition, of the image.”
Achille Bonito Oliva

The volume presents the figure of the artist Andy Warhol through a selection of over 200 works of art including paintings, unique works, serigraphs, drawings, polaroids, photographs and other artefacts, which retrace the salient moments of his career, from the beginnings in the 1950s to his success in the 1980s: a multifaceted artist, who in three decades has revolutionized the history of 20th century art.

Contents

Advertising the Shape
Achille Bonito Oliva

Warhol Begins
Edoardo Falcioni

The 1950s: Debut and Advertising Art
Warhol the commercial illustrator
Portraits: the first artistic dream

The Social Commentator: Icons, Fame, and Disasters
Icons, fame and success
Disasters

Portrait of the Society: between Alienation and Celebrity
Ladies & Gentlemen
Celebrities

Warhol and Music
The friendship with Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones
Other projects in the music world
Studio 54

Warhol and Fashion
Warhol’s first great love: the fashion world
The revolution of turning fashion into a medium

The Sacred and the Profane: New Symbolisms, Experimentations and Homages to the Past
New symbolisms and experimentations
Homages and commissions
The final decade: Warhol’s relation with the sacred

BMW M1 Art Car

Selected Bibliography