Andy Warhol, 1928-1987: Commerce Into Art

Meesterlijk Modern #2

by Klaus Honnef

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is recognized today as the high priest of Pop Art and a widely influential figure in modern culture. This Spanish-language book explores his artistry, spotlighting his most important work and ideas, from the famous Campbell's Soup and Brillo series to his extraordinary elimination of the artist from the manufacture of art.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Biography, Art History, Reference, Art Design, Design

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Sotiris Makrygiannis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Without knowing much about him, it is what the book description says: the elimination of the artists from art. The guy had a marketing eye and jobs, his famous "Images" are actually consumer products, he is the root of the consumerism that we see today? Probably. His trick very simple, playing with the negatives of popular images, something that a growth hacker will do today with newsjacking. Also back in the 60-70s the LSD culture gave those purplish colors, so consumer products OR popular image + the colors of the drug culture of the time + multiplication of image frame x3 or x4 times = Andy Warhol

[Cecily · Rating 1 out of 5]

Except for the Marilyns, I find Warhol's work overrated.

[Artù · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro bello e molto piacevole da leggere.
Artista, divo, superstar questa è l’escalation di Andy Warhol.
A leggere quanto scritto dall’autore Warhol era un sismografo della società; ha avuto la lucidità di leggere il suo tempo.
A Warhol non interessava un fico secco del consumismo, del mondo in erosione, del decadimento dei mass media, per lui contava fare soldi ed ascendere allo stato divino di superstar.
La pop-art di Warhol non aveva nessuna morale.
Personalmente trovo i suoi quadri innovativi ma non entusiasmanti; una cosa è certa Andy Warhol è un personaggio che rappresenta una società, uno spirito ancora oggi vigente, in una forma accelerata ed iper-espansa.

[Sanemsrgz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warhol sevdalısı olduğum için severek okuduğum bir kitap oldu. Alıntılar ve tablo betimlemeleri güzeldi. Benim için tek sıkıntısı daha çok bilgi aktarılabilineceğini düşünmemdi, özellikle kendisiyle ve hayatıyla ilgili.

[Miroslav Pavelek · Rating 5 out of 5]

80 pages about Warhol and his art. Quite interesting to see what his art was about including examples.

[Noel Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This goes through the different styles of work by Warhol. It gives a better insight as to his thinking behind different themes and explains them well including how his works were viewed at the time. An excellent resource about this great artist, includes wonderful artwork - not just the stuff everyone knows (in fact there is very little of that!).

[Gayle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andy Warhol was one of the first artists I cared about enough to read about. I have heaps of books by and on Warhol. This was my first and still my favourite.

Mine is hardback with Mick Jagger on the front though.

[Katsumi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This lively monograph traces Warhol's meteoric rise from commercial artist to celebrated Pop artist/icon. His use of silkscreen revolutionized the process for generations of artists to follow.

[Samuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987: Commerce Into Art is an art book written by Klaus Honnef, a German art historian/professor. This book is Honnef's attempt to summarize Andy Warhol's life & works in less than 100 pages—which is remarkable since the book's first word goes something like this: all of Warhol's documented life that has ever existed today, if laid end to end, would reach halfway around the world. The book also contains many high-quality illustrations and images too, like any other TASCHEN publications.

Honnef narrates Warhol's life, beginning from his early life as a struggling commercial artist to becoming an iconic American pop artist/showbiz. Essentially, the book is about how Warhol redefined "art" into something modern (marketable). I love the part about his thought process & philosophy. I can understand why some people still despise Warhol even today—he literally sampled the "original" and turned it into something of his invention. He is, for lack of a better term, an art thief—a genius art thief that has left the art world in shock.

In summary, this book is for anyone wanting to spare maybe 2-4 hours of his time to explore Andy Warhol's life and works in less than 100 pages.

[CM · Rating 2 out of 5]

What I learnt from this book:
The work and life of Andy Warhol, and books of the same series can be some distinct species.

Like Mark Rothko, here we have big panels of reproductions of the artist's work and brief chapters of biography. Unlike that book, the biography is not as accessible and the interpretation part, which is sparse in the previous book, seems to be a bit overblown here. After introducing two video works of Warhol, Sleep and Empire [two works with very little to look at, unless you want to stare at a guy sleeping or the Empire State Building for hours], the author suggests:

"[The way Warhol filmed it] made them strikingly immediate and fresh. If the cinemagoer really concentrated and become involved in these films, they had an incredibly forceful effect. Offering utterly meaningless trivia, they took an attentive audience out of the real world of purpose and constraint and induced a mood bordering on the ecstatic - whilst still in a state of consciousness. Warhol's film build up an explosive effect and alive, seen against the background of the narrative film tradition of Hollywood and its cliche cinema. Consciously ignoring every rule, Warhol unmasks them as empty shells filled with a manifest and lively reality. And yet his films would be unthinkable without the traditional film hold them up against; they are shaped by their deliberate contrast to the Hollywood approach and benefit from its myths."

This kind of (over?)interpretation is quite common in the second half of the book. To me, there is a fine line separating art criticism from marketing copy in auction-house catalogues ...

[Adele Enright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was looking for a book about Warhol's art rather than a book about his life. I had already read three books by him; The Warhol Diaries, Philosophy, and Popism. All worthwhile, yet Warhol doesn't discuss in detail his process of how he produced his art. This book is an overview of his art and it does discuss process. However, it appears to be translated from German or written by someone who does not have a grasp of American or British English. So there are some oddities in the use of language. All the art work presented is from European collections. (Not a bad thing, this is just info.) I found the book to have a European point of view of Warhol's art which clashed with my view of Warhol's art and how he is viewed by art historians in the U.S. But it's always good to read another point of view. The book from the NY MoMA is more readable and informative. That book is: Andy Warhol, 2017. Edited by Rebecca Roberts and published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andy Warhol, the iconic artist of the 20th century, indeed transformed commerce into art. Through his unique approach to pop art, Warhol explored the relationship between consumer culture and artistic expression. His vibrant and bold works, such as his famous Campbell's Soup Cans and Marilyn Monroe portraits, challenged traditional notions of art and redefined the boundaries of what could be considered artistic. Warhol's fusion of commerce and art continues to inspire and influence artists today. 🎨💰

[Sonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

¡Por fin terminado! Creo que si resumiese este año, sería el año de los bloqueos lectores, pero bueno… también es positivo leer con más calma.

Y con calma he leído este libro dedicado al artista pop Andy Warhol, una combinación biográfica junto con su desarrollo artístico. Desde los inicios, por sus serigrafías, filmografía y asuntos varios.

Muy recomendable como acercamiento a su vida y obra de forma breve y amena.

[sal · Rating 5 out of 5]

i can tell the author liked Warhol, and i simply loved how well he always got to blend in a very exquisite way what was going on in the context of society and how it impacted on Warhol’s artistic vision at that moment
the few thing i didn’t like is that although he explains the cause of his death, he didn’t write the date
also, it would’ve been nice if he made a better emphasis on how the attempt of murder created a before and after on his work that is very noticiable

[Marzia_Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is well written and managed to convey an accurate description of Andy Warhol and its art without lingering on myths and gossips.
Having said that, I struggled to finish it. Perhaps because I don't particularly like Warhol's art, apart from a few revolutionary works.
But this is all down to personal taste.

[Pate Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The actual writing occasionally feels a bit sensationalistic or mythologizing of Warhol in ways that feel a bit obvious. I mean he was Warhol; we all know what that means! What we don’t all know, though, is how to take that seriously. This book occasionally does that, which I found valuable. Finally pro-Warhol at last.

[Nicole Cassidy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative with great insight into Andy Warhol's life, art and motivations. It was dry in feeling though, and read more like a tradition school textbook because of the lack of engagement it offered.

[Zacary Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does this romanticize Warhol's life and over inflate the importance and artistic merits of Warhol's art? Probably.
Does this deliver a basic overview of Warhol's life and artistic progression while showing you lots of pretty pictures? Yes.
That's really all I wanted, so I'm happy with it.

[Alec Downie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does not add a great deal to the Warhol story but still worth revisiting the art and motivations behind the images and man.

It is also a very good introduction for people that just want the basics of who and why Warhol is important, in book format.

[Max Oliveira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Livro Taschen on a budget.

Satiricidade a parte até que é uma leitura bem interessante com um corpo bem robusto de obras do Sr. Warhola.

Recomendo para todo fã de arte, porque todo mundo sabe que fãs de arte amam colecionar livros da Taschen.

God bless e grande abraço.

[Héctor Contreras Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

the Taschen Basic Art series is a great collection to dip your toes into artist monographs if you don't know where to start (i mean there's the internet bu after 37 years in print this collection is almost as iconic as the artists covered in it)

[Jelena Nemet · Rating 3 out of 5]

“People should fall in love with their eyes closed. Just close your eyes. Don’t look and it’s magic”

[Gemma · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was somewhat interesting. I felt that the author didn't know what direction to take the book when he was writing it.

[Joss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buen libro, muy buen resumen de un artista ironicó. Las ilustraciones de 10, aunque muy pocas para mi gusto.

[GOMOJU SHIMTH · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story that makes you laugh, cry and reflect. The characters are so real that you feel like you know them personally. A reading that leaves you with a deep feeling of satisfaction.

[eme · Rating 2 out of 5]

libro mediocre sobre un artista mediocre

[Coralie Michon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warhol is an amazing artist. I especially love his work of Jackie Kennedy, my idol. This book had a lot of information about non only the art he made, but why he made it that way, his inspirations, his motives, his life. That collection of book is incredible and I think i might start to collect all of them!

[The Adaptable Educator · Rating 4 out of 5]

Klaus Honnef’s Andy Warhol, 1928–1987: Commerce into Art offers a meticulous and richly contextualized account of one of the twentieth century’s most enigmatic figures. Far more than a mere chronology of Warhol’s life, Honnef presents a compelling argument that the artist’s genius lay in the seamless fusion of commercial practice and avant-garde sensibility—a synthesis that forever altered our understanding of what art could be.

Honnef’s narrative begins in Pittsburgh, tracing Warhol’s early years as a commercial illustrator and underscoring how his familiarity with advertising tropes—bold color palettes, flat perspective, and repetition—laid the groundwork for his later Pop Art masterpieces. By interrogating the continuity between Warhol’s pre-Pop output and his celebrated paintings of Campbell’s soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles, Honnef dismantles the oft-repeated myth of a radical “turn” in 1962. Instead, he reads these iconic images as the logical culmination of a career-long exploration of consumer iconography.

Throughout the book, Honnef weaves social and theoretical frameworks into his art-historical analysis. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s notion of mechanical reproduction, he situates Warhol’s silkscreen process as a meditation on the aura of the original versus the mass-produced copy. Yet, Honnef also reminds readers that Warhol’s work—and persona—were suffused with camp playfulness: the dance between glamour and banality, high culture and low. His discussion of the Silver Factory years is particularly vivid, painting the space as both a laboratory for artistic experimentation and a glittering stage for celebrity performance, where figures from Edie Sedgwick to Muhammad Ali became part of Warhol’s living tableau.

Honnef does not shy away from Warhol’s contradictions. He probes the ethical ambiguities of appropriating imagery tied to consumer capitalism, the artist’s reticence in political matters (even as he captured the glamour of the celebrity-obsessed 1960s), and the tension between his public persona—aloof, ironic—and the vulnerability exposed in his diaries and films. Such balanced scrutiny prevents hagiography, inviting readers to grapple with the complexity behind the silver-lamé façade.

Stylistically, the book is a model of scholarly elegance. Honnef’s prose is clear without sacrificing nuance; chapters are organized thematically rather than strictly chronologically, allowing thematic dialogues—on repetition, celebrity, mortality—to resonate across decades. High-quality reproductions of Warhol’s work interspersed throughout the text serve not merely as illustration but as prompts for close visual analysis, an approach that will benefit both specialists and engaged general readers.

If one critique might be offered, it is that Honnef could have further probed Warhol’s impact on subsequent generations of artists—though he gestures toward this in his epilogue, noting Warhol’s enduring shadow over contemporary art’s entanglement with branding and social media. Yet this minor omission does not diminish the volume’s achievement: it remains the most comprehensive study to date of Warhol’s career as a transformative bridge between commerce and art.

Commerce into Art stands as an indispensable resource for anyone seeking to understand why Andy Warhol remains both a mirror and a provocateur of modern visual culture. Klaus Honnef’s scholarship is rigorous yet accessible, and his central thesis—that Warhol did not simply reflect consumer society but reimagined it as art—retains its provocative power long after the final page.

[Eric Aguirre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro explica y representa el arte de Andy Warhol desde sus inicios hasta su muerte. Su obra es más compleja de lo que aparenta a primera vista. Warhol es un observador desapasionado de la cultura norteamericana. Su obra critica; pero también celebra la cultura del hiperconsumo, muestra el temor a la muerte y a la vida, santifica a los famosos y glorifica la indiferencia.

Su obra es una repetición temática y estilística que raya en la monotonía. Pero esto tiene un propósito conceptual muy bien elaborado. Sus cuadros nos obligan a detenernos y reflexionar sobre la realidad.

La sobre exposición de imágenes en los medios de comunicación puede llegar a producir un efecto hipnótico y sedante. Es embriagadora y seductora la idea del sueño americano, pero nuestro artista nos dice que ese sueño oculta una cara oscura. La idea de ser famoso esta muy arraigada en la psiquis del pueblo norteamericano, pero también es una obsesión de occidente. Recibir reconocimiento y ser exitoso a toda costa es un tema recurrente en la obra de Warhol. Los cuadros "Thirteen most wanted man" demuestran que para ser famoso puedes valerte de cualquier medio, inclusive ser un asesino.

El arte de Warhol esta rodeada de muerte por todos lados. La carrera incesante por conseguir bienes materiales nos aleja de las ideas de mortalidad. Los productos cosméticos, las ropa glamorosa y la fama, son promesas de juventud, belleza y vida eterna.

Su obra es pura y solamente superficie, inclusive Warhol quería también ser así. Mucha superficie y nada de contenido. Con tecnologías como Facebook, Twitter e Instagram el mundo se ha convertido en pura superficie. Es sorprendente lo adelantado que estaba el artista de Pittsburgh a su época. Tenía un sexto sentido para detectar hacia donde se dirigía la cultura. Su frase: "en el futuro todos tendrán 15 minutos de fama" hoy es más relevante que nunca, solo que hoy en día la fama dura mucho más que 15 minutos.