Steven Watson is a cultural historian and documentary filmmaker. His other books include Strange Bedfellows, The Harlem Renaissance, The Birth of the Beat Generation, and Prepare for Saints: Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson, and the Mainstreaming of American Modernism. He lives in New York City.
“Steven Watson has written the best imaginable book on the Sixties
of Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable,
and the appropriation by mainstream culture of the underground
avant-garde. Based on the testimony of those who were part of it,
those who were not there can now know exactly what it was like,
without having to pay the price of having to live through it. And
since the end of the Silver Factory coincides with the near-fatal
attempt on Warhol’s life in 1968, the book has the narrative drive
of an unfolding tragedy. The research is impeccable, the spirit of
the book is open and sympathetic, and the writing is as witty as it
is clear. A marvelous achievement.”
—Arthur C. Danto
“Factory Made, an encyclopedic act of cultural memory, is as
wide-angled, as sympathetic, as polyphonic, and as entertaining an
account of Warhol’s 1960s as we’re likely to get. Watson’s emphasis
on collaborative artistic practices offers an eye-opening antidote
to the usual Andy-centered approach.”
—Wayne Koestenbaum
“Although Andy Warhol’s famous movies are among the most boring
ever made, this book about them is endlessly fascinating.”
—John Richardson
“Steven Watson's history of Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory years is a
riveting mosaic that captures a moment in the New York art world
when cultural change was accelerating at the speed of light. The
book sustains an atmosphere of tremendous suspense as, one after
another, Warhol’s ‘superstars’ are born, flash, and burn out, and
the wild party peopled with speed freaks, drag queens, and
exhibitionists spins out of control. In casting a wide cultural net
this entertaining history encompasses Pop Art, experimental film,
and the birth of the Play-House of the Ridiculous, connecting these
movements and making sense of it all in a way that no other book
has done. Factory Made is a masterly achievement.”
—Stephen Holden
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
