Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is arguably the most iconic figure in twentieth century art, an enigmatic personality who not only altered the definition of art itself but also in his wake left a vast and staggeringly complex record of his activities. Warhol's archive consists not only of his artworks but also 1,500 cardboard boxes, flat files, and trunks filled with source material, memorabilia, correspondence, and junk mail. When the catalogue raisonne is complete, it will constitute an indisputable record of the artist's paintings, drawings, and sculptures -- some 15,000 works produced by the artist between 1948 and 1987, the year of his death.

Volume I documents the artist's early paintings and sculpture made between 1961 and 1963 and incorporates newly discovered works as well as some previously thought to be lost. Included are not only projected paintings influenced by popular advertisements, comics and other printed ephemeral but also classic and much-prized Warhols such as the Campbell Soup paintings, serial works representing cultural icons Marilyn, Liz, Elvis, photobooth portraits of Warhol's friends and idols as well as early self-portraits. Accompanying the works and detailed catalogue entries is an amazing array of source material -- from newspaper scraps and movie star publicity stills to photographs of Warhol and his consorts in his studio and at exhibitions.

In consultation with a team of experts, Georg Frei and Neil Printz analyze Warhol's unique techniques and subject matter as well as establish a strict chronology for his stylistic evolution. Their text provides both a compelling overview and unparalleled detail of an endlessly fascinating life and career.

The projectis co-sponsored by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in New York and Thomas Ammann Fine Art in Zurich.

The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne is the result of more than 25 years of planning and research and will constitute the indisputably definitive reference to Warhol's voluminous artistic production. The editors and advisors of the catalogue raisonne established rigorous standards of authenticity for Warhol's work, unequivocably differentiated individual works within a series, and discovered works that had been unknown or were thought to be lost. All of their findings are documented in this unprecedented project.

The catalogue raisonne project was initiated in 1977 by Thomas Ammann. The editors George Frei and Neil Printz began primary research in 1993, advised by the distinguished curators and art historians Kynaston McShine and Robert Rosenblum. Experts from the Andy Warhol Foundation reviewed archival materials, personally examined nearly each work of art, analyzed works in museums in their conservation facilities and discussed them with conservators, submitted works for review by the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, and interviewed Warhol's assistants and colleagues to assemble a customized database of works unparalleled inmWarhol scholarship. Warhol's method of working in serial compositions, silkscreen, and repeating units challenges traditional art connoiseurship and begs the question not only of what is and what is not Warhol, but which Warhol is it? For each work, the catalogue answers, among other things, two central questions: When was it made? and How was it executed?

Volumes in the series are organized on the basis of Warhol's self-identification as apainter. Warhol began to produce his first concentrated body of paintings in 1961 and continued in the same studio on Lexington Avenue in New York until 1964, when he established the Factory, his studio at 231 East Forty-seventh Street. Volume I documents the work Warhol produced in his first studio, from 1961 until 1963. (Subsequent volumes record separately the earliest work in drawing from 1948 to 1961; work from 1964 to 1968, and the paintings and sculpture of the 1970s and the 1980s.)

Each volume of the catalogue raisonne will have a silk-screened cover and gatefolds showcasing Warhol's serial work, and will constitute a unique collectible object whose pop-art sensibility complements the scholarly and curatorial insights contained within. All works are reproduced in color, with 2-color text that makes it easier for readers to find their way through the catalogue entries. These list for each work the standard data (dimensions, date, present owner, inscriptions and special notes), provenance, exhibitions, and literature. Volumes are organized according to catalogue number, with works reproduced in numerical order, followed by the corresponding texts. Supplementary figures to the texts illustrate primary materials Warhol appropriated for his works -- newspaper articles and advertisements, soup cans, publicity stills -- as well as photographs of the works in Warhol's studio and in galleries. Volume I includes 14 appendices, essays that briefly examine particular aspects of Warhol's work such as his materials and his studio; notes to the catalogue texts; a title index; and a comprehensive general index. Indexes cross-reference works with their catalogue numbers and page numbers asthey appear in the book.

The 607 paintings and one sculpture documented in Volume 4 of The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne were produced during a period of less than three years, from late 1974 through early 1977. In September 1974, Warhol changed studios, moving across Union Square from the sixth floor of 33 Union Square West to the third floor of 860 West Broadway. Like Volumes 2 and 3, Volume 4 is identified with a new studio, where Warhol continued to work for a decade, until he moved into his last studio at 22 East 33rd Street on December 3, 1984. Volume 4 may be seen as the first in a series of books associated with one studio that will document an enormously productive ten-year period in Warhol's oeuvre from the mid seventies to the mid eighties.

A riveting excursion through Warhol's incomparable personal collections, from the bizarre to the illuminating Andy Warhol (1928-1987) remains an icon of the 20th century and a leading figure in the Pop Art movement. He also was an obsessive collector of things large and small, ordinary and quirky. Since 1994, The Andy Warhol Museum has studied and safeguarded the artist's archive encompassing hundreds of thousands of these objects, at turns strange, amusing, and poignant. From this array, many of these items have been researched and described in this book for the first time. Written by Matt Wrbican, the foremost authority on Warhol's personal collection, A is for Archive features curated selections from this collection, shedding light on the artist's work and motivations, as well as on his personality and private life. The volume is organized alphabetically, honoring Warhol's own use of a whimsical alphabetical structure: "A is for Autograph" (a selection of signed objects, many of which influenced his most popular works), "F is for Fashion" (featuring his collections of cowboy boots, neckties, and jackets), "S is for Stamp" (works of art by Warhol and others relating to stamps and mailed items), and "Z is for Zombie" (a grouping of photographs and ephemera of Warhol in various disguises: drag, robot, zombie, clown). The book also features an insightful essay by renowned art critic and Warhol biographer Blake Gopnik. For the myriad fans of Warhol and his quixotic world, this volume is essential and unforgettable.