America

by Andy Warhol

'He created his own universe and became its star'. (David Cronenberg, "Guardian"). Andy Warhol carried a camera with him everywhere he went and, taken from ten years of extraordinary shots, his America aspires to the strange beauty and staggering contradictions of the country itself. Exploring his greatest obsessions - including image and celebrity - he photographs wrestlers and politicians, the beautiful wealthy and the disenfranchised poor, Capote with the fresh scars of a facelift and Madonna hiding beneath a brunette bob. He writes about the country he loves, wishing he had died when he was shot, commercialism, fame and beauty. An America without Warhol is almost as inconceivable as Warhol without America, and this touching, witty tribute is the great artist of the superficial at his most deeply personal.

Genres: Art, Photography, Nonfiction, History, Art and Photography, Memoir, American

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1985

About the author

Andy Warhol was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol is considered one of the most important American artists of the second half of the 20th century. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture. Some of his best-known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell's Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental films Empire (1964) and Chelsea Girls (1966), and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966–67).

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dissertation research.
This was a super quick read because it is mainly made up of photographs.
Of course, the photographs were brilliant because it's Andy Warhol but let's talk about the text. Although the entire body of text only really makes up a small essay, it raises some incredible questions about what 'America' means in the Twentieth century. I thought this when reading Popism and the same happened with America, the vast changes and rapid movement of life during that century is actually terrifying to think about. Warhol talks about the influence of TV on younger generations and I kinda had an existential crisis because I have not lived in a world without television and that probably has affected my personality and life decisions massively.
Tomorrow I am going to quickly go through this book again to write down quotes because I think some are vital for explaining how America was shaped in the mid-Twentieth century.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andy Warhol tackles the ugly 80's: escapes unscathed

Instead of watching Sunday football today, I travelled back to the 1980s courtesy of Warhol's book, taking advantage of the temporary intellectual deadzone over the city.

There's synchronicity, too, with that quintessentially 1980s movie Back to the Future as the day foretold in the film approaches (October 21, 2015). Filmgoers back in 1985, while they were waiting in line for tickets, would have seen Warhol's book America fresh on the shelves at the now-closed bookstore chain Waldenbooks in the same shopping mall as the theater! So instead of forward to now, I go back to then. No DeLorian necessary.

In spite of the cultural challenges of that era, the photographs are great, less about Andy Warhol, more about real people. Except for the celebrities which he naturally couldn't resist. Those, as they always do, have aged uncomfortably. Thank god you and I are not one. Think David Bowie and Grace Jones, looking so fine back then.

The quirky, quaint text sloshes between realness and fantasy, naiveté and poignancy. His thoughts on his own death (only two years later) hit you like a brick. Those about the spread of Pop culture across America as "Yeah, that's right, it missed me too!"

Nowhere can I recall any other essay on window shopping with anything like this: "Looking at store windows is great entertainment because you can see all these things and be really glad it's not home filling up your closets and drawers." Wait, there was something from Capote that I read over breakfast a long time ago...what was that?

Sometimes I disagreed with something. For example, he says in an appreciation of Texas that "I always thought that cowboys looked like hustlers. That's nice. Cowboys and hustlers are quiet. They don't know many words." In my own experience, however, every hustler I've been with couldn't shut his damn trap. Usually ended up paying for more time than I needed.

Andy Warhol is long gone, Pop is extinct, and the best things he created, his sexy movies, are offline. Compared to the real creativity he had, Hollywood is out of ideas. They remade the "classic" Back to the Future instead. Are we better now than in 1985? Worse? No one cares, do they?

I'm lucky to have this doubly autographed book as a fond remembrance of him, and maybe even of the ugly Eighties.

[Lois · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Some ideas still relevant to today. Some of it is pretty outdated. Interesting pictures overall.

[Boorrito · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unsurprisingly for a book called 'America' written by an American artist it catches that lovely inclusiveness but exclusiveness that's such a trademark of the US.

What's so different from other countries there?

Most don't bother with saying you could one day be included.

[Siel Ju · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not until earlier tonight when I visited the Andy Warhol museum in Pittsburgh, sat down on a second-floor bench for a break, and found myself reading Andy’s final book cover to cover did I know that Andy was not only a fun artist but a fabulous writer too. America collects together photos from Andy’s trips across the country — many of famous artists and performers — alongside his casual, funny, yet philosophical musings on everything from fame to hot bodies to, of course, America itself.

“If you ever get a chance to travel around the rest of the country, you should try to do it, and especially you should try to stay for a while in each place and get a good look,” Andy writes — and his short takes on various cities and states are kind of like (dare I say it?) my love notes (I said it!). He promotes travel despite also writing this: “I’m the type who’d like to sit home and watch every party that I’m invited to on a monitor in my bedroom.”

Wait — wasn’t that all of us, all last year? It’s incredible how many of the subjects Andy touches on in this book — from police violence against Black people to environmental degradation — are still timely concerns. And it’s also fascinating how, despite the ironic detachment Andy was known for, political this book reads, ending thusly: “We all come here from somewhere else, and everybody who wants to live in America and obey the law should be able to come too, and there’s no such thing as being more or less American, just American.” Read it if you love your politics alongside celebrity candids, deadpan humor, and a pop of philosophy.

[Jerry Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fast and enjoyable read. I think I read it years ago but it is surprisingly relevant to right now. Especially his thought and attitudes toward immigration and who’s American and who’s not. In all reality attitudes in America aren’t that different than when this was written. Andy had that dry cynical humor but he was also a very human, normal and level headed individual with a unique and special insight when looking out.

[Blane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in Warhol's inimitable slyly humorous style with his trademark sense of wonderment, this collection of photographs depicting everyday Americans doing American things resonates 40 years later...even if some of them come across as dated.

"We all came here from somewhere else, and everybody who wants to live in America and obey the law should be able to come too, and there's no such thing as being more or less American, just American." --Andy Warhol

[Quinho · Rating 3 out of 5]

[eu queria dar duas estrelas e meia]
andy warhol? ótimo fotógrafo e artista. visão demasiadamente otimista dos estados unidos (ou eu que falhei e não li com as "lentes do tempo"?).
fora isso, achei uma ótima ferramenta pra compreender o que acontece hoje em.. são paulo. quebra tudo tocanna. tamo preso em um ciclo sem fim mesmo

[Victor H · Rating 4 out of 5]

andy era um artista mt foda
mas muito - MUITO - pretensioso numas coisas ai da vida.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixture of musings and images.

A few sections were interesting but overall this book didn't really grab me.

Reading time around one hour.

[Jana Eichhorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in one enthralled sitting.

[Motion Picture Gems · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the photographs in this book, so many celebrities.

[Mary Malkova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspired to write the book about Mirny later next year

[Ashley Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very... American.

[Adam Helsel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this weirdo.

[Javito · Rating 2 out of 5]

Resumen: todo es América, los pobres son pobres porque quieren y fotos de famosos bastante whos

[Christopherseelie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most candid work by Andy Warhol. He shares his thoughts without equivocation, tho he's not strident or especially provocative. The accompanying pictures are at times beautiful, often with beautiful people in them, and their juxtaposition with the thoughts he shares make a dynamic commentary on what it means to be American. The effect is endearing because Andy's worldview is actually rather guileless and pragmatic to the core. He's like a good-natured uncle or grandfather who is accepting of the changes in the world but not beholden to any of it. He can be quite funny too.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

First published during the Reagan era ( and two years before Warhol's death), this is a strange collection of photographs accompanied by a text that is both naive and curiously hopeful. You get the sense that Warhol is adrift, no longer part of a living cultural scene (the Factory of the '60s had been replaced by a protective barrier of wealth and celebrity) but fascinated by an idea of "ordinary" America that he tries hard to love but can't quite inhabit. "There's no such thing as being more or less American, just American" he concludes.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incontornável artista da segunda metade do século XX, ícone do movimento Pop, Warhol era também um documentador compulsivo do seu dia a dia. Sempre acompanhado de uma máquina fotográfica, registava os sítios por onde passava e as pessoas que encontrava. O resultado é este America, retrato de uma terra de imediatismo, sem passado nem futuro, um eterno agora capturado e fixado pela objectiva de Warhol.

[Hsu Jui-Ting · Rating 4 out of 5]

The kind of book that meanders a bit, expresses itself naïvely and with simple elocution, and is totally, completely honest in delivery. It's optimistic, and it reflects its timeliness, but its greatest strength is that at its best moments, the minute observations of Warhol can hint at a nice, universal truth.

Isn't that what we want to read, anyways?

[Clark Knowles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled across this book at school in the new book room and I just absolutely love it. Published in 1985, but it feels fresh and important. And Warhol is so funny. It's my favorite surprise book of the year.

[Karie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginning of the end for die-hard modernists like myself.....

[Mimonni · Rating 2 out of 5]

se si sono già letti "Pop" e i Diari, questo ripropone un po' le stesse cose. Si legge ma niente di che.

[Lesley Cheung · Rating 5 out of 5]

tl;dr: everyone can be an american - no one truly 'originates' from america. everyone here is weird. no one is normal.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warhol is always a pleasure, and such a visual treat , to boot.