Andy Warhol's America

Some artists die in obscurity, and are only famous later. Some artists manage to become known while alive; it's a more lucrative route. Often, this requires vigorous self-promotion. But with Andy Warhol there's a sense that almost goes beyond this: that Warhol became famous, and rich, precisely because he was seen as representing the zeitgeist; and to some extent, his representation of the zeitgeist was his art. Warhol's oeuvre could and would never have been produced as a hobby, or even obsession, by someone who no-one hard heard of; and the question "is it any good?" can't really be answered independently of the context, and culture, in which is was produced. This makes his life story also inerently interesting as a reflection his times, even though his was hardly the story of an everyman. In some ways, Warhol's work anticipated what digital technology would make commonplace and easy; it seems surprising to think he produced much of it through mechanical techniques. There is a definite sense in which we still live in Warhol's world, whether or not we would wish to.