Andy Warhol and Czechoslovakia (ARBOR VITAE)

Through a wealth of research, and illustrated with more than 1,200 photographs and documents (many published here for the first time), this enormous compendium traces Andy Warhol’s relationship to his parents’ native Czechoslovakia. Neither routine monograph nor ordinary biography, Andy Warhol and Czechoslovakia is the fruit of a 22-year labor of love by editors Rudo Prekop and Michal Cihlár, who were granted unprecedented access to the family archives by the artist’s brothers. Prekop and Cihlár amassed a wealth of interviews with friends and family members (both in the U.S. and in Czechoslovakia), and compiled these alongside archival interviews and all manner of ephemera, from family mementos and early artworks to previously unseen snapshots of Warhol. The editors also examine Warhol’s close relationship to his mother and explore his influence upon Prague’s underground music scene. The vast wealth of material gathered in this splendidly designed Warhol scrapbook paints a vivid portrait of the artist’s connection to his ethnic background.