Patti Smith: Andy Warhol would have known how to depict 9/11

When 9/11 happened Patti Smith discovered how much she missed Andy Warhol, because he would have known how to respond as an artist.

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Supported by Nordea-fonden.

I noticed that you wrote about Andy Warhol,

saying you felt little for the can and didn't like the soup.

(Laughter)

That you preferred an artist not mirroring the world, but transforming it.

Yes. Well, when I was young, I truthfully didn't have an affection for Andy Warhol.

As a human being I thought that he was not a very generous or kind person,

his work really didn't speak to me.

Robert loved Andy Warhol though, and Robert believed he was a genius,

and so I didn't dismiss him because I knew Robert knew things,

you know I trusted in Robert's instinct.

And, when I was young, his work didn't speak to me.

At this time of my life, I've really gotten to appreciate what a genius he was.

And, I find, if I'm in a museum, and looking at contemporary art,

I'm not so drawn to contemporary art, and I suddenly see something across the room,

and I think "That's strong", and I go over and it's Andy's.

And the last works he did, or some of the last works he did before he died,

his last supper, body of work, I thought was genius, was quite moving.

But what I think is important in the quotation about an artist, either mirroring or transforming,

I think what you do is transforming, instead of mirroring what you see,

it's two different conceptions of how to be an artist.

Well, I feel more drawn to the transformative in art itself.

I'm not so drawn to non-fiction, but you know I also appreciate more and more

someone that has the ability to mirror our times.

I think that it's important that people do that, it's just I'm not really that style of person.

I learned this lesson when 9/11 happened.

Where I live in New-York City, I could see the towers from my stoop,

and I watched them come down, and I didn't live far from there

so I went and looked at the remains of one of the towers, the South Tower.

And it was an extraordinary...

it was like a piece of sculpture, it looked like the Tower of Babel.

And I started thinking a lot about Andy, then.

I really missed Andy as an artist then, because he would have known what to do

as an artist, not to transform, but to document this extraordinary thing that happened.

So, even though I'm not that style of artist,

I recognized the importance of that type of artist.

But when I was young, I was really judgmental.

(Laughter)

(Applause)