Becoming Andy Warhol Author: UCCA Center for Contemporary Art Publisher: Zhejiang Photography Publishing House

This is the most comprehensive exhibition of the artistic life of the legendary pop artist Andy Warhol in China so far. The album selects the collection of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, USA, covering nearly 400 works in the media of painting, photography and film, including photographs and documentary items exhibited outside the Andy Warhol Museum for the first time, and takes a new look at Andy Warhol's artistic career.

This book focuses on Andy Warhol's artistic practice as a photographer and experimental filmmaker, and re-examines a large amount of literature and artistic heritage related to Warhol. Based on the latest academic research on Warhol's life and diverse artistic practices, and through the presentation of representative and less well-known works from various stages of Warhol's artistic career, this book fully demonstrates the profound influence of Warhol's diverse cross-border practices and "copying" creative methods on the development of visual art.

The book also includes three important review articles: José Carlos Diaz, chief curator of the Andy Warhol Museum, links the exhibition concept of "Becoming Andy Warhol" around interesting anecdotes about the artist's birthday; Blake Gopnik, author of the most comprehensive and detailed biography of Warhol to date, reveals Andy Warhol's often overlooked classical and modern art background; art critic Zhou Wanjing explores the lasting resonance of Warhol's endless pursuit of "new" in the 21st century.

Chapter introduction of this book:

Divided into five chapters, the book offers a non-linear exploration of Warhol’s life and career through drawings, photographs, objects, films, documentary objects from Warhol’s youth, and contemporary photographs of Warhol by artists such as Stephen Shore and David McCabe.

The "Origin" section introduces the artist through Warhol's early paintings and documentary photos, and his early life as an immigrant and Byzantine Catholic in a working-class community in Pittsburgh, the influence of Warhol's close relationship with his mother, Julia Warhola, and the creative co-creation of the mother and son. This section also shows Warhol's earliest pop paintings created during this period when he successfully entered commercial art by working for fashion brands and department stores.

The chapter "Warhol the Photographer" presents a complete picture of his career, from the subject matter to various experimental explorations, including portraits of many of his contemporaries and collaborators, which provided material for the artist's silkscreen portraits. In addition, this chapter also includes Warhol's collage photography, snapshot booth photos, Polaroid photos, film scenes and urban nightlife shot in a more traditional black and white way, and Warhol's personal life recorded with his camera, which combines artist and photographer.

The chapter "Film as Object" presents the experimental films Warhol shot at the Factory in the 1960s and 1970s, following the success of Pop Art, which made many of the people featured in the films into superstars. These include the rarely seen "Audition" series, the iconic Empire State Building (1964), previously rarely shown 16mm films, and television programs from the 1980s.

The chapter "Warhol Reinvention" focuses on Warhol's commercial art. As a commercial artist, Warhol remixed images and brands from previous works with the New York culture of the 1980s, creating works such as Campbell's Soup, Brillo Boxes and Coca-Cola, as well as new versions of Marilyn Monroe screen prints, demonstrating his keen insight into now iconic commercial images. From the hand-painted paintings that emphasized brushwork in the 1960s to the smooth and flat typical American style in the 1980s, Warhol's change in artistic expression reflects the artist's technical innovation and stylistic transformation in response to changes in American fashion trends and social norms, as well as the artist's own artistic development needs.

The “Immaterial” section explores Warhol’s struggle with spirituality in the final stages of his life, and shows his shift toward abstract and conceptual art through the works of the “Camouflage” (1986) and “Rorschach Inkblot Test” (1984) series. This section also features Warhol’s self-portraits from the late 1970s and the “Mythology” series from the early 1980s. After Warhol’s unexpected death in 1987, Warhol was hailed as an American myth and a Pop saint because of the “Mythology” series.

This book provides a new perspective for understanding Warhol's clever appropriation across many fields such as art, commercial illustration, experimental filmmaking, and the special connection between mass production and contemporary popular culture, social communication, and youth culture. It highlights the key role played by Warhol in shaping culture by integrating art into urban life during the post-war economic growth and social development period in the United States, relying on his observation and participation in urban nightlife, Hollywood, fashion, and music. This young man who constantly innovated himself and was a model of the American dream eventually became Andy Warhol, and his influence and spirit were also renewed by changing the world.

Andy Warhol said: "If you want to know the real Andy Warhol, please look at my paintings, my movies, and myself. I am there. There is nothing behind that." This is a complex individual. He is very shy, but a star in the social circle; he is sometimes dull, but sometimes clever and eloquent; on the one hand, he is obsessed with making people aware of his unique aura as a celebrity, and on the other hand, he disdains being a celebrity. This book will take you closer to the real Andy Warhol. This book is the accompanying exhibition catalogue of the annual exhibition "Becoming Andy Warhol" of UCCA Center for Contemporary Art.

UCCA Center for Contemporary Art is China's leading independent art institution. Adhering to the idea that art can penetrate and improve life, it brings rich art exhibitions, public projects and research programs to more than millions of viewers every year. UCCA Center for Contemporary Art has the qualification of an art museum certified by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and is committed to promoting China's deeper participation in global dialogue through contemporary art.