Module 12 - Fabulous! A portrait of Andy Warhol

Summary Fabulous! A portrait of Andy Warhol is the bibliography about artist Andy Warhol.  As a young child he was sickly and labeled a sissy.  He was teased and picked on at school.  He lost himself in his artwork.  He eventually moved to New York and started his own painting studio.  He became famous for his artwork and his unconventionalities.  Through it all he was a devoted son and eccentric.  

ImpressionsI liked this book, but was expecting more details on his life.  The author Bonnie Christensen does not go in depth on Andy Warhol.  This book is good for young children, but young adults need more details.  The illustrations were excellent and added a lot to the story.  The illustrations are big and bright.  However, they have their own style so as not to get confused with Andy Warhol’s work.  

Reviews Andy Warhol was an unlikely fellow to ever be tagged fabulous. Shy, sickly, and labeled a "sissy," Warhol could only imagine a life of glamour. But imagine he did, with pictures of celebrities on the wall to inspire him and his own artistic talents to push him to New York City after graduating college. There, Warhol was able to find success as an illustrator, but he hungered for more. He found fame and fortune as a chronicler of pop culture, using everyday objects as his subjects, as in his famous series of paintings featuring Campbell's soup cans. Christensen-who once performed with Warhol's "superstars" at the Actors Studio-does a masterful job of capturing her subject in just a few words. Readers will sympathize with the boy so unattractive he was called "Rudolph the red-nosed Warhola" and admire the perseverance that landed him in the limelight. The bursts of text are set against striking illustrations-collaged photo transfers on canvas, which were then painted in oil-that are a fitting homage to Warhol's art. In an author's note, Christensen shows another side of Warhol, who lived with his mother, attended church, and served dinners to the homeless. By making readers care about the young Andy, kids will be moved to explore his art, which is precisely the sort of relationship between biography and the real world that authors strive for. Christensen succeeds. -Ilene Cooper

 

Cooper, I. (2011). Fabulous! A portrait of andy warhol. The Booklist, 107(19), 78-78. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/871665905?accountid=7113

 

This biography of Warhol focuses on his youth and uses very little of his art, relying instead on mixed media to show Andy's surroundings. It begins in New York City in 1966, where Andy was a star, then flashes back to his beginnings in Pittsburgh, PA. Andy is portrayed as quiet and different, a good observer and very much true to himself. Once he left Pittsburgh, he found work as a commercial artist and then evolved into the well-known Andy Warhol. The book contains a lengthy author's note, bibliography and timeline and complements other Warhol biographies. Betsy Russell, Media Specialist, Bradley Elementary School, Columbia, South Carolina

Russell B. Fabulous!: A Portrait of Andy Warhol. Library Media Connection [serial online]. October 2011;30(2):83. Available from: Library & Information Science Source, Ipswich, MA. Accessed April 9, 2013.

Suggestions

Andy Warhol created art from everyday objects.  The students could use some of the online Web 2.0 tools such as Piccasa or Photobucket to “Warhol” some photographs they took of everyday images they see at school. Andy Warhol was also picked on as a child. Student could write a journal entry about a time they were picked on and how Andy was picked on.

References

Christensen, B. (2011). Fabulous! a portrait of andy warhol. New York: Henry Hold and Company.

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