HOLY TERROR: Andy Warhol Close Up

by Bob Colacello ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 15, 1990

From the former editor of Warhol's Interview magazine, a gossipy, gutsy, gripping portrait of ""The Pope of Pop Art."" Colacello went to work for the artist in 1970 and for the next 13 years spent almost every waking hour in his company and that of the superstars and sycophants, the drugged and demented who formed Warhol's entourage. All the while, Colacello kept a detailed journal that he now draws on to produce a work of startling immediacy and convincing honesty. And as clearly as he captures those glitzy, gritty years, Colacello is even sharper in tracing his enigmatic subject's psyche. Despite a patina of childlike innocence, Warhol, Colacello says, was ""pushy, grabby, infantile, and troublesome."" In sometimes shocking, sometimes hilarious, detail, Colacello recounts instances of Warhol's manipulations, hypochrondia, seeming asexuality, voyeurism, and obsession for collecting With a sharp eye and a compassionate heart, the author dots his text with memorable portraits: of jewel-bedecked Paulette Goddard, of pontifical Diana Vreeland, of megalomaniacal Salvador Dali. Equally intriguing are sketches of such 15-minute celebrities as Candy Darling and Holly Woodlawn, the transvestite stars of some of Wathol's more outrageous movies. Crisply written, well-organized, Colacello's is a first-rate, sweeping memoir of an astonishing cultural phenomenon.

Pub Date: Aug. 15, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1990

Categories: NONFICTION