Sunday in Books, Blogs, and Andy Warhols

Last week many of our writers made their debuts. Sean Moreland reviewed Anna Powell's Deleuze and Horror Film, Matt McLennan reviewed The Coming Insurrection, and Jason Smith reviewed Henri Lefebvre's The Production of Space.

There will be more in the coming week. Until then, there are plenty of things to read:

• Richard Dorment's "What is an Andy Warhol?," which, aside from being a must read for those interested in art, has almost convinced me to add Arthur C. Danto's book on the topic to my reading list:

Everything that passed before Warhol's basilisk gaze—celebrities, socialites, speed freaks, rock bands, film, and fashion—he imprinted with his deadpan mixture of glamour and humor, then cast them back into the world as narcissistic reflections of his own personality. This is what makes him one of the most complex and elusive figures in the history of art. As Danto explains in his brilliant short study of Warhol, the question Warhol asked is not "What is art?" but "What is the difference between two things, exactly alike, one of which is art and one of which is not?"

Which leads to the twist:

That is very like the question at the heart of a class-action lawsuit brought by the film producer Joe Simon-Whelan and other yet-to-be-named plaintiffs against the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., and the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, Inc., which is the committee that was set up eight years after the artist's death in 1987 to pronounce on the authenticity of his work. The case revolves around a series of ten identical silk-screened self-portraits from 1965 (Red Self Portraits), one of which is owned by the plaintiff and all of which the authentication board has declared are not by Warhol.

• Steven Heller reviews several illustrated volumes dealing with early Soviet art, (slide show here) Alphonse Mucha, Reynold Brown, Cult Magazines, "The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-Creator Joe Shuster," and some Greenwich Village bohemians. By the end of the piece you will know who painted the Attack of the 50 ft Woman poster.

• My friend Josh has started a website dedicated to contemporary artists: Artistopedia is

dedicated to art and the process of creating as well as promoting your artwork. This site is completely user driven, so all of the content that you will find here has been submitted by artists with the goal of teaching other up and coming artists, as well as those that just love learning new things.

• And, if you are so inclined, there is something for baseball fans.

• Finally, two things that Caroline found:

1) Librarians fighting back against censorship.
2) drunk monkeys. You deserve a good laugh. Have some water and nurse that hangover.