To be honest I am still surprised about Mr Warhols fame. He certainly was a great artist, but his work (in my eyes) are not as breath taking and special as Picasso’s. But I guess ‘The Factory’ which was not only just a cool place, but a celebrity hang out that played an important role. He was well connected and created his own fans and market in one go. I guess at a certain point he simply was a social anchor as well as Godfather to anything related to art in New York?

Another part of his fame is his commercial ’soup art’ - his understanding how to create mass media compatible mass art. I think in that respect he was truly groundbreaking:

In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes.

I think in this quote he summed up everything you need to know about today’s media society (although today it’s 15 seconds of fame on YouTube). His art reflected mass produced images of the same people / themes over and over again. Art was no longer an unique object, but a mass produced variation of an idea / topic.

Mr Warhol was not just a rich and famous person. He also did volunteer work for social institutions. He not only painted soup, he also handed it out. This - more then anything - honors him.

More? Wikipedia