Warhol’s independent wealth made him the dominant force in the stalled underground scene.

Evidence

Baudelairean cinema was stalled. Under the circumstances, the major force in underground movies became the one figure who was able to subsidize his own studio: Andy Warhol. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 528

Categorization

• SEED: This is a clean, testable claim for the reader’s argument: the avant-garde was shaped not by genius but by who could afford to keep working when everyone else was bankrupted by prosecution. Directly supports the ‘avant-gardes are produced by conditions, not genius’ thesis.
• XREF: Connects to later claims about how a scene becomes a market, and to the gentrification-origin thesis: the artist who can subsidize his own studio becomes king.