Has our ever-changing world at last out-Warholed Andy Warhol? A set of previously unseen photographs taken by the visionary pop artist late in his life is about to be offered for sale by an online art and antique dealer for up to £5,000 for a print. However, aspects of this latest commercialisation of Warhol's name suggest that contemporary culture has now exceeded his prophecies in its celebrity worship and aesthetic indifference.
Warhol was a prophet of our time. Long before reality television was invented, he said that in the future everyone would be famous for 15 minutes. Long before today's celebrity culture, Warhol saw famous people as inherently fascinating, and many of the black and white photographs that are about to go on sale are slick snapshots of famous friends including John Lennon, Mick Jagger and Debbie Harry.
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