There has not yet been enough time passed to tell who will have the greater heritage. One would think that Warhol would be the less likely to be remembered as a true artist, simply because he turned out his art in a factory like atmosphere and kept a strict eye on the bottom line. One may believe that Close is the true artist because he has suffered more, both physically and mentally, but there are some art critics who compare his style of square grid art composition to a "grotesque paint by numbers." While Warhol is definitely the more famous of the two, this may be because so much of his career was spent in promoting himself as an artist and as...
Neither man can be judged better than the other though, because it is a case of comparing apples and oranges. It is interesting to note how the similarities in their young lives (poor childhood, losing father at an early age, strong influence of mother on their youth) made two men who are so much different in their ideology and their style of painting.
But both men's work are considered good enough to hang in the Carnegie Museum, and both men's work are considered to be important enough to be part of the traveling exhibition I saw at the Columbus Museum.
