As art history books show, it’s typical of great artists to find greater success posthumously. However, Van Gogh, El Greco, and Vermeer have nothing on Andy Warhol’s latest gig. In celebration of the artist's life, the Andy Warhol Museum, located in Pittsburgh, has made a live video stream of Warhol’s gravesite available 24/7 on its website. The video stream project, entitled “Figment,” was launched on the anniversary of Warhol’s birth, August 6, 1928. The camera holds a steady view of the artist's tombstone, and can often be seen surrounded by Campbell's soup cans and other tokens of appreciation from visitors.
Sure, for some of us, the video stream may be a bit creepy, especially when observed late at night. Yet the stream does an excellent job of reinforcing Warhol’s pop culture vision, which the artist would surely have loved.
You can watch the live stream of Andy Warhol’s gravesite on The Andy Warhol Museum website now.
Andy Warhol would have been 85 today. The Art Institute blog is paying fitting tribute with a series of animated GIFs constructed from latter-era Warhol Polaroids. Oddly enough, they don't seem strange at all but perhaps a format that Warhol, who liked to play with the shifting gaze and recognized that modern life produced short bursts of fame, might have appreciated.