Volume 29, Number 2 · February 18, 1982
The Rise of Andy Warhol
By Robert Hughes
Andy Warhol: Das Graphische Werk, 1962-1980
catalogue by Hermann Wünsche
distributed by Castelli Graphics (New York), 173 color plates, unpaginated pp., $35.00
Andy Warhol: A Print Retrospective
an exhibition at Castelli Graphics, November 20 to December 22, 1981
To say that Andy Warhol is a famous artist is to utter the merest commonplace. But what kind of fame does he enjoy? If the most famous artist in America is Andrew Wyeth, and the second most famous is LeRoy Neiman (Hugh Hefner's court painter, inventor of the Playboy femlin, and drawer of football stars for CBS), then Warhol is the third. Wyeth, because his work suggests a frugal, bare-bones rectitude, glazed by nostalgia but incarnated in real objects, which millions of people look back upon as the lost marrow of American history. Neiman, because millions of people watch sports programs, read Playboy, and will take any amount of glib abstract-expressionist slather as long as it adorns a recognizable and pert pair of jugs. But Warhol? What size of public likes his work, or even knows it at first hand? Not as big as Wyeth's or Neiman's.
Review, 5658 words
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