"Fabulous! A Portrait of Andy Warhol" by Bonnie Christensen

Image Courtesy of: http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/media/full/jpg/2011/07/17/fabulous-book.jpg

Bibliographic Citation

Title: Fabulous! A Portrait of Andy Warhol

Author/Illustrator: Bonnie Christensen

Year of Publication: 2011

Publisher City: New York

Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books

ISBN: 9780805087536

Author/Illustrator Website: http://bonniechristensen.com/

Media Used for Artwork: Collaged Photography, Oil Paint, Oil Pastel

Copyright 2010/2011

Awards

·         School Library Journal Starred Review

Annotation

Andy Warhol is known for his paintings the Campbell’s Soup Cans, but many do not know much about his life.  This picture biography tells the story of the mysterious artist who became the Prince of Pop Art.

Personal Reaction

                Christensen does a wonderful job of breaking Warhol’s life into different categories and briefly writing about each major event so readers gain a better understanding of the artist.  By breaking up the biography in this way, readers are able to get brief snippets into Warhol’s life.  It is almost broken up like a chapter book, using a format older readers will be use to.

This picture book is a good way to introduce readers to biographies, allowing them to understand the format before they read larger ones.  This book will interest readers who are aware of his work, but may not necessarily know who Warhol is.  What better way to gain an understanding of art movements then to read about those who did the work.

The amount of work Christensen did for her illustrations is amazing.  In an interview for a blog entitled “SevenImpossible Things for Breakfast,” she discusses how she transferred photography onto canvas then colored it with oil pastels and oil painting.  The pictures are amazing to see the process she went through.  Working with the pop images works well with the Pop Art that Warhol created.  Christensen worked hard to capture the spirit of Warhol’s artwork.