I went to an Andy Warhol exhibit a couple of years ago at the AGO in Toronto. I was not impressed with the art, and to me it was very commercial and trend-focused or shock-focused to get attention.
I didn't see the art, only canned pop culture meant for marketing.
Now I see why... Andy was a businessman.
The first edition of Hello! appeared on British news-stands in 1988, hastening the fulfilment of Andy Warhol's famous prophecy about everybody having their 15 minutes of fame - a cliché now, but also one of the greatest truisms of the age. (I met Warhol once, at a party in New York for an English rock star. It was clear Warhol had no idea who the rock star was; he had been invited simply to ensure the event would be mentioned in the next day's papers; he had come simply because he had been invited. His eyes were dead, and when I shook his hand it felt like talcumed parchment paper.)
"Making money is art," Warhol said, "and good business is the best art." And who doesn't want to be an artist?
Source: The 20 years that changed my life... and the face of modern Britain - Telegraph
I'm still looking for 15 - 30 minutes of fame...
Excellent story about someone growing up in the late 20th century and the turmoil surrounding his life as he reached middle age.
