"…it is hard to find anyone today who doesn’t see Warhol as a major genius, and the artists of the 1980s and ’90s whom Hughes especially hated are now starting to feel as safe and substantial as Monet."

This depressing quote says it all about the American “arts” scene. Even if Warhol was, “a major genius,” that everyone who is “anyone” agrees to something like that is disturbing.  Call it what you will. Groupthink, walking in step, clones. What is also disturbing is this obsession with the present. That an artist from the eighties and nineties  is “kosher” today, does not make them like Monet.
This writers’ biography is very impressive. But who needs a doctorate from Oxford to say what is safe and popular?