One of the most important examples of that is Andy Warhol, who spawned a generation of
people who think they can make it here in this city. Andy Warhol embodies the spirit of the city that still
draws people. Every day a thousand more kids come to New York propelled by his legacy. And even if the
decades pass and Warhol becomes a vaguer and vaguer character, there will still be something here t
hat's
directly linked to him - this pilgrimage, or calling, coming here from the Midwest, Eastern Europe or South-
East Asia, to make it big, to be an artist. I think there should be a destination in New York to mark all those
journeys. There are hundreds of monuments to politicians in the New York City, but I can’t think of any monuments to
artists, and other figures who actually represent the lived experience of most of the people who live here. When I was a teenager, I visited Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, where Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are
buried. I was struck by the throngs of people that came to visit the tombs of their idols. When Andy Warhol
died, his family had his remains sent back to Pittsburgh, where he was born, and so no such marker for him
exists in New York. So a public statue of Warhol has a sense of righting a wrong. Andy, like so many other artists and performers and people who don’t fit in, moved to New York to be
himself, fulfill his dreams and make it big. That’s why I moved here, and that’s what my Andy Monument is
about. Of course it could be argued that someone could just go to the Modern and look at his Soup Cans,
but I think there is something to being truly out in streets of New York, to have something you can visit at 4:20
in the morning with your friends. I will be unveiling the Andy Monument at the North-West corner of Union Square on Wednesday, March 30
at 6:00PM. I hope you will be able to join me to celebrate one of our own. All my best,
Rob
New York
March 2011
