A popular television show, American Horror Story, is focusing its current season around cults. The next episode is said to depict Andy Warhol, which is causing much speculation among his fans; was Warhol really a cult leader? He had a following called The Factory, a group of people who were obsessed with his art and had their own Visions in the art community. These people were usually quite famous and helped his career. Warhol had an energy that most typical cult leaders do that attract people to him. This energy attracted all kinds of people good and bad; one of them being Valerie Solanas, who tried to assassinate him. Valerie, being a radical feminist, wrote a play about the elimination of all men and shot Warhol because he would not produce this "obscene" piece of work. Solanas was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. Many people like her found Warhol to be a huge part of their life and said he controlled many aspects of how they lived their daily lives.
Andy Warhol is one of history's most well-known artist because of the fact that he sold out. If he didn't mass-produce his art in order to make a profit, he would not be as famous as he was. He was extremely successful, yet he was not doing art for the right reasons. It's upsetting to see such a selfish artist be one of history's most influential in the pop art culture when there were so many others that came before him (and quite frankly we're better). It is interesting, though, to see a modern take on his persona because of how interesting of a character he was. Warhol was a strange guy at the time and was left out as a child due to chronic illness and later finding out he was gay. It seems as though he tried to overcompensate for his social flaws (at the time) by trying to become an amazing artist loved by everyone. Andy Warhol is seen to be one of the greatest artists of the 20th century but had some strange all most terrifying secrets to defining him.
I had no idea about basically everything in this article. Of course I know who Warhol is, as everyone does, but I didn't know he was equipped with his very own cult. Wilddd.
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