I'll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Interviews

by Andy Warhol, Kenneth Goldsmith (Editor), Wayne Koestenbaum (Preface by)

The Question-and-Answer interview was one of Andy Warhol's favorite communication vehicles, so much so that he named his own magazine after the form. Yet, never before has anyone published a collection of interviews that Warhol himself gave. I'll Be Your Mirror contains more then thirty conversations revealing this unique and important artist. Each piece presents a different facet of the Sphinx-like Warhol's ever-evolving personality. Writer Kenneth Goldsmith provides context and provenance for each selection. Beginning in 1962 with a notorious interview in which Warhol literally begs the interviewer to put words into his mouth, the book covers Warhol's most important artistic period during the '60s. As Warhol shifts to filmmaking in the '70s, this collection explores his emergence as socialite, scene-maker, and trendsetter; his influential Interview magazine; and the Studio 54 scene. In the 80s, his support of young artists like Jean-Michel Basquait, his perspective on art history and the growing relationship to technology in his work are shown. Finally, his return to religious imagery and spirituality are available in an interview conducted just months before his death. Including photographs and previous unpublished interviews, this collage of Warhol showcases the artist's ability to manipulate, captivate, and enrich American culture.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Biography, Pop Culture

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 2004

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

[Brooks Sterritt · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading over 400 pages of interviews, I do feel "closer to the real Warhol," however incorrect that might be. I don't know how often this is mentioned, but he had a great sense of humor, one that seems lost on the interviewer 90% of the time. I enjoyed the earlier "cat-and-mouse" type interviews in which Warhol is constantly deflecting in what seems like a conscious strategy to the later ones that read more avoidant and tired. Probably tired of the same questions: are you rich? is this art? etc. Nice coverage of his films, which don't get talked about as much. And this may have been obvious, but Warhol put in WORK. K.G.'s notes are informative, and there's a deep bibliography.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scattershot brilliance, scattershot tedium. What else do you expect from Warhol, even when cherry-picked?

[Jared · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gave me a lot of insight into the kind of person that Warhol was, but it also didn't. He was often purposefully evasive in many of the interviews. This book spans interviews that he gave from the 60s through the 80s and it seemed that in the 80s a little of the actual Andy Warhol might have come through, but I was never quite sure. He certainly was influential and innovative, but he was also pretty immoral which comes through clearly in certain interviews in the book.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite professor in college wrote the forward or the intro. I loved her perspective and it framed the book really well for me. Total bias.

[Rafael Toledo Plata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Después de leer sus entrevistas, me he permitido superar y entender que el Pop Art va más allá de una moda o de un cliché. Sin lugar a dudas, se trata de un libro lleno de reflexiones sobre el arte, la estética, la composición, el mercado y el significado (si es que lo hay) de un determinado cuadro, foto, película o montaje.

Las facetas de artista, fotógrafo, director de cine y de ser humano hacen de Andy Warhol un absoluto visionario que revolucionó para siempre la historia del arte.

Creo que más que volverlo a leer, es un libro que de una o de otra manera permite leerse en desorden (cualquier entrevista), pues cada una contiene mucha información que de seguro permitirán pasar un buen rato y conocer el detrás de cámaras de uno de los artistas más importantes de nuestra era: Andy Warhol.

¡Admiración total!

[Blane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of interviews is a lot like Warhol himself: Funny, deflective, enigmatic, vapid, insightful, ahead-of-the-game, confounding, contradictory. Was he just playing with the interviewer with his one word answers...or was he really that shallow? I guess we never can be sure, though I think there was, indeed, a lot more going on with his art and life than he ever let on.

[Matt Sokol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andy is brilliant but the editor of this book completely misses the point, which is very impressive given how much time he has spent thinking about it.

The bigger words a person uses to talk about Andy, the less they understand...

[Airport5 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it hard to get into. But still some good stuff here and there.

[Madeleine Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book full of interviews with Andy Warhol. The more I read the more I loved him.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

wonderful stories about AW loving vacuum cleaning

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rare intimate look at how Warhol views interviews and life. The more you read you can finally start to understand him and enjoy his humor and opinion. Great read!