The ordinariness of his soup cans resulted in such a huge novelty factor for the time that he literally went viral as an artist. His gift was in capturing the zeitgeist of the time in the early 60's when mass consumerism was just beginning to blossom in America. Andy Warhol is the father of the modern meme as artistic expression. He made art that the media and people wanted to share and this is the most important legacy he leaves behind as an artist.