I went to the Warhol exhibit at the Dali museum a few months ago. I never was a big Warhol fan before going, but perhaps viewing an entire exhibit devoted to his work might give me a better appreciation. I now theorize that Warhol's artistic life was one big piece of performance art. "Can I become famous and revered by hanging out at the right NYC parties, and immortalizing famous people in what is otherwise the visual equivalent to sampling?" Ignore "Marilyn" where he just silk screens over a photo, and pay attention to the fact that he's famous for it.

Polaroid photographs? If they were photographs of your friends, no one would care. But when the pics are of Mick Jagger at Studio 54 or Jackie O, and Andy Warhol took them, now you've got art. Why? Because famous people.

It seems he his overall theme was fame. His most famous quote even deals with that. So it seems fitting that he is famous not for being a great artist but because he hung out with famous people and made art that involved them.

That's the theory I'm sticking with, anyway. It's either that or take the cynical view that the art world is more shallow than I previously thought.

Afterward we revisited the Dali side of the museum. Holy crap, now there's an artist.

"Can I become famous and revered by hanging out at the right NYC parties, and immortalizing famous people in what is otherwise the visual equivalent to sampling?"

That sounds pretty like celebrity culture to me. Is that not more or less why people like Kim Kardashian are famous?

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famous_for_being_famous