WEBVTT 00:00:00.078 --> 00:00:03.023 I noticed that you wrote about Andy Warhol, 00:00:03.023 --> 00:00:07.863 saying you felt little for the can and didn't like the soup. 00:00:07.863 --> 00:00:09.423 (Laughter) 00:00:09.423 --> 00:00:15.942 That you preferred an artist not mirroring the world, but transforming it. 00:00:15.942 --> 00:00:21.903 Yes. Well, when I was young, I truthfully didn't have an affection for Andy Warhol. 00:00:21.903 --> 00:00:28.715 As a human being I thought that he was not a very generous or kind person, 00:00:28.715 --> 00:00:32.962 his work really didn't speak to me. 00:00:32.962 --> 00:00:38.380 Robert loved Andy Warhol though, and Robert believed he was a genius, 00:00:38.380 --> 00:00:43.340 and so I didn't dismiss him because I knew Robert knew things, 00:00:43.340 --> 00:00:46.425 you know I trusted in Robert's instinct. 00:00:46.425 --> 00:00:52.228 And, when I was young, his work didn't speak to me. 00:00:52.228 --> 00:01:00.018 At this time of my life, I've really gotten to appreciate what a genius he was. 00:01:00.018 --> 00:01:07.031 And, I find, if I'm in a museum, and looking at contemporary art, 00:01:07.031 --> 00:01:12.864 I'm not so drawn to contemporary art, and I suddenly see something across the room, 00:01:12.864 --> 00:01:16.262 and I think "That's strong", and I go over and it's Andy's. 00:01:16.262 --> 00:01:22.180 And the last works he did, or some of the last works he did before he died, 00:01:22.180 --> 00:01:31.349 his last supper, body of work, I thought was genius, was quite moving. 00:01:31.349 --> 00:01:39.616 But what I think is important in the quotation about an artist, either mirroring or transforming, 00:01:39.616 --> 00:01:46.940 I think what you do is transforming, instead of mirroring what you see, 00:01:46.940 --> 00:01:49.941 it's two different conceptions of how to be an artist. 00:01:49.941 --> 00:01:56.513 Well, I feel more drawn to the transformative in art itself. 00:01:56.513 --> 00:02:06.066 I'm not so drawn to non-fiction, but you know I also appreciate more and more 00:02:06.066 --> 00:02:10.183 someone that has the ability to mirror our times. 00:02:10.183 --> 00:02:17.538 I think that it's important that people do that, it's just I'm not really that style of person. 00:02:17.538 --> 00:02:23.455 I learned this lesson when 9/11 happened. 00:02:23.455 --> 00:02:29.739 Where I live in New-York City, I could see the towers from my stoop, 00:02:29.739 --> 00:02:37.354 and I watched them come down, and I didn't live far from there 00:02:37.354 --> 00:02:42.553 so I went and looked at the remains of one of the towers, the South Tower. 00:02:42.553 --> 00:02:45.701 And it was an extraordinary... 00:02:45.701 --> 00:02:49.965 it was like a piece of sculpture, it looked like the Tower of Babel. 00:02:49.965 --> 00:02:55.467 And I started thinking a lot about Andy, then. 00:02:55.467 --> 00:03:02.181 I really missed Andy as an artist then, because he would have known what to do 00:03:02.181 --> 00:03:10.350 as an artist, not to transform, but to document this extraordinary thing that happened. 00:03:10.350 --> 00:03:14.418 So, even though I'm not that style of artist, 00:03:14.418 --> 00:03:19.151 I recognized the importance of that type of artist. 00:03:19.151 --> 00:03:23.145 But when I was young, I was really judgmental. 00:03:23.145 --> 00:03:25.258 (Laughter) 00:03:25.258 --> 00:03:27.046 (Applause)