Sublime

Girl Talk, produced by Andy Warhol.

Andy Warhol already understood this idea of the open exchange of ideas and ubiquity. After all, Warhol coined that phrase “fifteen minutes of fame.” Warhol mass-produced his art and appropriated popular images, leveraging the attention of the art world into multiple revenue streams and increasing the value of his individual pieces.

Warhol’s book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, he said, “Making money is art, and working is art and good business is the best art.”

“The Pop artists did images that anybody walking down Broadway could recognize in a split second – comics, picnic tables, men’s trousers, celebrities, shower curtains, refrigerators, Coke bottles – all the great modern things that the Abstract Expressionists tried so hard not to notice at all.”

Andy Warhol

Here Warhol and his Factory are the model. Like Warhol, Hirst has developed production strategies to ensure that there is always enough material to keep up with collector demand; for instance, he’s made at least six hundred “unique” spot paintings.* He has also maintained a media profile that has expanded the audience and the market for his work be