Willi Bloess

In 1961, Andy Warhol resolved to become the chronicler of the affluent society. His series of consumption products is heralded by hand-painted dollar bills, coke bottles, and the 32 varieties of Campbell's soup cans. In 1968 he is shot down. The doctors declare him clinically dead. But Andy remains productive for nearly 20 years more. He dies in 1987. Author Willi Bloess asked Annette Schulze-Kremer to draw this comic biography as a reference to the 1960 years and to Mort Drucker, one of...

His whole life-long, the surrealistic painter Dali was obsessed to come to terms with three key moments of his childhood in Spain. 1. The fear that in his parents eyes, he is only a rebirth of the dead first son, 2. the shocking effect that the pictures of venereal diseases discovered in his father's library have had on him, and 3. the betrayal of his father, whom he found in bed with his mother's sister. His "floating clocks” gain worldwide famousness and become a symbol for a reality...

Involved in expressionism, cubism, and surrealism, Picasso was an outstanding painter during the first half of the 20th century. Innumerable publications to his person have appeared. In contrast to them, this short guide delivers an overview of the life and work of the controversial genius in not so many words and entertaining pictures. By developing a cubistic-influenced comic style, author Willi Bloess and illustrator Thomas Thiesen come close to their aim: explaining art by art.

At the end of the 1970s, Keith Haring decorates the walls of the subway tunnels in New York with simple, two-dimensional characters. His tag is "The Radiant Child.” In contrast to the graffiti scene, which consists of little more than repetitions of such tags, Keith develops a diverse language of symbols. They seem to be mystic messages. In 1990 Haring dies, aged 31, from AIDS.

Frida Kahlo called herself "Daughter of the Mexican Revolution.” At the age of 18 she had a terrible traffic accident with the result of great pains for the remaining 28 years of her life. She created around 70 self-portraits. She painted when she felt sick and had to lay in bed. When she felt good, she preferred to live an exciting life. But while her husband, Diego Riviera, amidst the Mexican macho society, could live his immorality in public, she had to arrange her dates with other men...