“Campbell’s soup cans” 32 20” x 16” silk-screen oil paintings, each of a different variety (flavor) of Campbell’s soup, first presented in Los Angeles on 9th July 1962 (date considered the beginning of Pop Art) and now
on permanent exhibition at the MOMA.
The list of soups
by Campbell’s and
the order of introduction of each flavor onto the market.
Manufacturing process: semi-mechanical (stencil) silk-screen painting, with dominant white and red colours and a touch of gold. The work
realist rather than abstract.
Public reaction: people
by the complete change from abstract expressionism and the interest in popular culture. But there
apparently no message: what
Warhol mean to say?
Interpretation:
a) The work
a declaration of love for popular culture, and the idea that art
for everybody, not just for the elite.
b) Art and advertising: Warhol
advertising is a form of art and that ads can be used as a source of inspiration. The large number of cans
the excess and the uniformity of modern consumption.
c) A work of art in touch with the present: it
the spirit of 60s America in its simplicity and in the way it
a very material world.
d) Many
Warhol
capitalism with its emphasis on consumption, on uniformity (making mass production cheaper and more profitable) , and its rejection of the old and love of the new.
Conclusion: Warhol
everybody
a right to ¼ of an hour of fame. Perhaps all his art
this. Art
for everybody just as fame can be for everybody. It
certain that he
famous because of pop art and he
today one of the most important and popular artists.