John Lennon and I once hid from Andy in a closet at the Sherry-Netherland hotel. I wish I'd known him better. This fantastic new biography makes me feel that I do. It really reveals the man - and the genius - under that silver wig. - Elton John
"An excellent inside view on Andy's life, personality and genius!" - Diane von Furstenberg
"Enthusiastic and absorbing." - Wall Street Journal
"Warhol lived one of the great lives of the 20th century, and he now has a biography worthy of that life...Even at 976 pages, the book rarely leaves you wanting less. It turns out this life, so often discussed in grandiose or mythic terms, is quite intricate, even beautiful, in extreme close-up." - Los Angeles Times
"Impressive, sweeping" - Washington Post
"There have been several biographies and memoirs of Warhol, but Gopnik's contribution may be the most comprehensive and clear-eyed. Warhol was an obsessive archivist and self-mythologist, but the author manages to wade through the evidence without being bogged down, and argues the case for Warhol as a genius of his own making." - Apollo Magazine
"Knowing and getting a thumbs up from Andy Warhol as an up and coming artist in what would be his later years was a triumph and a thrill. Blake Gopnik's incisive, richly detailed bio puts you in Andy's inner circle and sanctum from beginning to end. It breaks down how, for decades, Andy strategically defined the pop culture zeitgeist as the world's most renowned artist." - Fab 5 Freddy
Gopnik's exhaustive but stylishly written and entertaining account is Warholian in the best sense-raptly engaged, colorful, open-minded, and slyly ironic. ("He had become his own Duchampian urinal, worth looking at only because the artist in him had said he was.") Warhol fans and pop art enthusiasts alike will find this an endlessly engrossing portrait. - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"An epic cradle-to-grave biography of the king of pop art...The author serves up fresh details about almost every aspect of Warhol's life in an immensely enjoyable book that blends snappy writing with careful exegeses of the artist's influences and techniques...A fascinating, major work that will spark endless debates." - Kirkus Reviews(starred review)
"Highly readable...certainly for those fascinated with Warhol, but equally for those seeking an in-depth yet accessible introduction to the artist." - Library Journal
Blake Gopnik, one of North America's leading arts writers, has served as art and design critic at Newsweek, and as chief art critic at the Washington Post and Canada's Globe and Mail. In 2017, he was a Cullman Center Fellow in residence at the New York Public Library, and in 2015 he held a fellowship at the Leon Levy Center for Biography at City University of New York. He has a PhD in art history from Oxford University and is a regular contributor to the New York Times.