“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes” said Andy Warhol.
The following piece is from my recent visit to the Picasso to Warhol exhibition in Perth, and is intended to highlight why rejection can be a good thing in your life if you allow it to become a motivator for great things.
Andy Warhol has been called the pope of the twentieth-century pop culture, a one-man show who dazzled America with his innovative influence on not only modern art but film, music, fashion and even the idea of celebrity. At the centre of this was the work he made and the life he led in the 1960s, in a New York loft called The Factory. This is where everything seemed to happen. This is where everyone wanted to be.
In my research I came across a letter (below) that Warhol had presented to MoMA in 1956 as a gift, his drawing of the “Shoe” and that was subsequently rejected by the committee.
The lame excuse they gave Warhol is an excellent reminder of how geniuses throughout history may not have been recognised because some pen-pusher or bureaucrat was more happy protecting his or her image, rather than take a “risk” and give an opportunity to a creator.
Can you think of others that have experienced a similar fate?
The result of this rejection is now available for all to witness. Warhol did not allow this rejection to stop him. He went on to become one of the 20th century’s great POP icons and in the process his art appreciated in value way beyond expectation. A recent article in Fast Company illustrates the cost when the wrong decisions are made, in the art world or otherwise.
“Being good in business is the best kind of art.” Andy Warhol
The following link has more on Andy Warhol.