Andy Warhol portraits - Carter Ratcliff

To the general public, Andy Warhol is known as a painter of famous faces, from Liz and Marilyn and Jackie and Marlon to his own ever-changing self-portrait. Less known are the portraits he made throughout his career of socialites, art dealers, collectors, politicians, and a variety of contemporary cult figures, mostly commissioned work that helped finance Warhol's many other artistic activities. This book is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of Warhol's many portraits, including well-known icons as well as many works largely unknown even by avid Warhol followers. Included are more than 300 portraits made by Warhol from the early 1960s until his death in 1987, assembled as a face-book of the amazing cast of characters that populated Warhol's fascinating, star-studded, and, at times, sordid world. As Warhol said, "I think everybody is my friend." Included in this book is an introduction by gallerist Tony Shafrazi, who has a long history with the work of Andy Warhol, and essays by Warhol experts, established art historians, and critics Carter Ratcliff and Robert Rosenblum, who lend insight into one of the least fully known but nevertheless prolific aspects of Warhol's endlessly fascinating career.