"Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops"

Looking back on Dwight Macdonald's essay on "The Theory of Mass Culture", the topics of Academicism and Avantgardism are two categories that Andy Warhols art can be put into.
The silk screened images of classic objects of Americana that I feel have been clearly made for the masses, but at the same time are marketed as something elite, or for the high cultured crowd.

At first, many people did not accept his art or thought it to be trashy and in poor taste. At the time he was considered something of an Avant Garde artist, because not many people were doing what he was, and those that appreciated his art were not of the mainstream population.

However, just a few decades later... Andy Warhol is everywhere.

It seems that just about every possible image can be replicated into the style of Warhols "Four Marilyns".

Posters of Andy Warhol paintings can be ordered off of Amazon or even bought in Target and Walmart.

Suddenly..it is cool to like Andy Warhol.

I guess the eventual transition of a piece of art from being "Avant Garde" to accepted and loved by the masses causes me to question if there really even is such a thing as being Avant Garde.

When I think of Avant Garde I think of an artist who could care less what critics think or whether his work sells. It is often something that is outside the norm, irreverant, vulgar, or just completely strange and impossible to understand to the majority of the people.

What is a shame to me is that, in time, it becomes cool to be different.

People who have always marched to the beat of their own drummer suddenly become just like everyone else. All the squares have caught on to what a select few has for years come to covet and appreciate.

I personally am frequently irritated by such occurences. When I find a musician or a movie that I really really like and no one else has heard of them or appreciates them, I revel in the fact that it is "my secret art" and it is something I have which no one else really even cares about.

And then next thing I know a video of them makes its way to MTV and pretty soon they are all over the media and EVERYONE likes them.

Its really quite frustrating, though maybe a bit selfish and self righteous.

I am becoming a bit disheartened by the fact that individuality (true individuality) does not seem to exist.