Matt Wrbican

One of the world's best-known artists, Andy Warhol (1928-1987) still exerts influence on contemporary art and culture. Packed with information about Warhol's prolific creativity, as well as his other cultural interests, the project follows the arc of his life. This beautifully illustrated publication reveals Warhol's rags-to-riches life from his early years in Depression-era Pittsburgh to his success as an illustrator in New York City in the 1950s and his transformation into a notorious Pop Artist, underground filmmaker, author, publisher, collector, recorder and iconic celebrity. With 21 beautifully produced removable facsimile documents help give an unprecedented insight into Warhol's life and work in this unique and authoritative guide to this celebrated modern artist.

A riveting excursion through Warhol's incomparable personal collections, from the bizarre to the illuminating Andy Warhol (1928-1987) remains an icon of the 20th century and a leading figure in the Pop Art movement. He also was an obsessive collector of things large and small, ordinary and quirky. Since 1994, The Andy Warhol Museum has studied and safeguarded the artist's archive encompassing hundreds of thousands of these objects, at turns strange, amusing, and poignant. From this array, many of these items have been researched and described in this book for the first time. Written by Matt Wrbican, the foremost authority on Warhol's personal collection, A is for Archive features curated selections from this collection, shedding light on the artist's work and motivations, as well as on his personality and private life. The volume is organized alphabetically, honoring Warhol's own use of a whimsical alphabetical structure: "A is for Autograph" (a selection of signed objects, many of which influenced his most popular works), "F is for Fashion" (featuring his collections of cowboy boots, neckties, and jackets), "S is for Stamp" (works of art by Warhol and others relating to stamps and mailed items), and "Z is for Zombie" (a grouping of photographs and ephemera of Warhol in various disguises: drag, robot, zombie, clown). The book also features an insightful essay by renowned art critic and Warhol biographer Blake Gopnik. For the myriad fans of Warhol and his quixotic world, this volume is essential and unforgettable.