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Lot Essay
“The Campbell’s Soup Can was the Nude Descending a Staircase of pop art. Here was an image that became an overnight rallying point for the sympathetic and the bane of the hostile. Warhol captured the imagination of the media and the public as had no other artist of his generation. Andy was pop and pop was Andy” - Henry Geldzahler
The Soup Can series, created in 1962, consisted of 32 canvases, each depicting a different variety of Campbell's soup. The paintings were intended to be a commentary on the commercialization of art and the relationship between mass production and popular culture. Warhol was fascinated by the idea of transforming everyday objects into art, and Campbell's venerated product line was a perfect vehicle for this. By using not only commercial imagery, but the same technique (screenprint) these firms used to print the packaging of their products, Warhol challenged traditional notions of what art could be and what it could represent. He believed that art should reflect the world around us, and that popular culture was a rich, and legitimate, source of inspiration.
The Campbell's series was initially met with mixed reactions, with some critics dismissing it as a gimmick and others hailing it as groundbreaking. However, it quickly became one of Warhol's most famous and enduring works, and it remains an iconic symbol of the pop art movement.
The present series of screenprints date from 1968. It was the product of Factory Additions, established in 1967 as the publishing arm of the Warhol machine. Factory Additions was responsible for publishing versions of many of Warhol’s greatest hits, including the Marilyn and Electric Chairs portfolios.
The Soup Can series, created in 1962, consisted of 32 canvases, each depicting a different variety of Campbell's soup. The paintings were intended to be a commentary on the commercialization of art and the relationship between mass production and popular culture. Warhol was fascinated by the idea of transforming everyday objects into art, and Campbell's venerated product line was a perfect vehicle for this. By using not only commercial imagery, but the same technique (screenprint) these firms used to print the packaging of their products, Warhol challenged traditional notions of what art could be and what it could represent. He believed that art should reflect the world around us, and that popular culture was a rich, and legitimate, source of inspiration.
The Campbell's series was initially met with mixed reactions, with some critics dismissing it as a gimmick and others hailing it as groundbreaking. However, it quickly became one of Warhol's most famous and enduring works, and it remains an iconic symbol of the pop art movement.
The present series of screenprints date from 1968. It was the product of Factory Additions, established in 1967 as the publishing arm of the Warhol machine. Factory Additions was responsible for publishing versions of many of Warhol’s greatest hits, including the Marilyn and Electric Chairs portfolios.