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“Andy Warhol’s New York City: Four Walks Uptown to Downtown”

Little Bookroom, $14.95

Andy Warhol was a star-struck young man from Pittsburgh when he came to New York after earning a degree in painting and design in his hometown at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon). He went to Manhattan to make a name for himself. He did just that and more. For almost four decades, Warhol lived and worked in New York as a commercial artist, a magazine publisher, a modern painter, an influential filmmaker and an overall celebrity. In the end, Warhol was famous for being Warhol.

In this portable and fascinating guide, Thomas Kiedrowski follows in Warhol’s footsteps, from Union Square to the Upper East Side. Some of the places associated with Warhol are gone, but many more remain. In addition to the locations of Warhol’s various offices and numerous residences, Kiedrowski includes other Warhol haunts. They range from Studio 54 (disco to the stars that is now home to the Roundabout Theatre) to the Hotel Chelsea as well as numerous galleries that exhibited his work.

There also are a few surprises. For example, raised Catholic, Warhol apparently admired New York’s Catholic churches and stopped by the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer on East 66th Street several times a week to pray.

All in all, the book is a must for Warhol fans everywhere.

“Art + NYC: A Complete Guide to New York City Art and Artists”

Museyon Guides, $19.95

Abstract expressionism, pop art, conceptual art, performance art: These are just some aspects of New York’s vast contemporary art scene covered in this marvelous guide. The editors provide baby steps to help readers appreciate even the most esoteric movements. Profiles of all of the major artists are here too: Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollack, Roy Lichtenstein, Jeff Koons, Yoko Ono, among others.

The second half of the book consists of a guide to museums, art galleries, public art and historical sites as well as restaurants and pubs, from downtown to Brooklyn.

The guide also travels beyond New York City with stops at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton and the Storm King Art Center, an open-air museum in the Hudson Valley that boasts a large collection of outdoor sculptures

The book includes more than 100 color and archival photographs.

“Art Architecture Design New York”

teNeues, $12.95

This guide in English, German, French and Spanish offers snapshots of museums and art galleries, brief descriptions of architectural landmarks (from the Chrysler Building to Grand Central Station) as well as portraits of artists and entrepreneurs (Julian Schnabel, Ian Schrager). Also here are edgy shops, restaurants and hotels — the revamped Gramercy Park Hotel — and unusual institutions — the Center for Architecture in Greenwich Village. Most poignant is the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center’s 8-acre location. In honor of the victims, it consists of nearly 400 trees, two large recessed pools and reportedly the largest artificial waterfalls in the United States.