Pop Life: Art in a Material World

“Good business is the best art"-- Andy Warhol

Provocative and entertaining, Pop Life examines how artists since the 1980s have cultivated their public persona as a product, and conjured a dazzling mix of media, commerce, and glamour to build their own “brands.” Beginning with the grandfather of Pop, Andy Warhol, who manufactured mass-produced wares in The Factory in the 1960s, the book explores Jeff Koons' infamous Made in Heaven series—showcasing his marriage and sexual relations with Italian porn-star and latter-day politician Illona Staller (aka La Cicciolina)—and his stainless steel Rabbit sculpture; an iconic array of golden spot and butterfly paintings from Damien Hirst's recordbreaking 2008 auction; and a reconstruction of Keith Haring's Pop Shop in New York. Takashi Murakami’s designs for Louis Vuitton are also included, along with works by Richard Prince, Martin Kippenberger, Tracey Emin, and many more.

Published to accompany an exhibition at Tate Modern, London, and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, this fascinating and extensively illustrated book looks at artists who have not only created but also marketed, promoted, and sold their own work.