Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years.

It's no surprise that the legacy of Andy Warhol, one of the most influential, game-changing artists of the 20th century, continues to direct the course of contemporary art. This catalogue, accompanying an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, tracks some of the layered manifestations of that influence. The first third of the text gives a sprawling account of Warhol's own career, paired with quick-fire analogues in the work of other artists. But it is the interviews with working artists that deeply explore the complexities of that legacy. While John Baldessari discusses the personal impact of Warhol's first solo show in 1962, Ryan Trecartin remembers initially encountering Warhol at a Target department store in the mid-1990s. The Warhol of these interviews is as often generous and inspiring as he is the source of discomfort, even directly stealing from pop artist Alex Katz (Katz doesn't seem to mind particularly). The final section celebrates a number of works outside the Metropolitan exhibit that directly reference the Pop artist. The entirety of the catalogue presents an expanse of diverging critical opinions, dovetailing through striking reproductions of sculpture, painting, prints that reinforce Richard Artschwager's statement, "Everybody has their own Warhol," making the Pop artist at once familiar and newly exciting. Color illus. (Sept.)