In 1962, Andy Warhol made his first solo debut as an artist at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. One of the paintings presented was his famous Campbell’s soup cans paintings. This painting has garnered a lot of discussion due to the mundanity and repetition of the subject. 

At first glance it seems as though that the 32 “portraits”* might be printed copies of the same image but actually, they are all individual paintings. If you take a close look, you will see that each of the cans has its own flavour/recipe and idiosyncrasies. No two are identical. 

Andy did however, turn towards silk-screening and other duplication processes for his work thereafter. What makes this interesting is that silk-screening until then was used only for commercial purposes. Andy was employed as a commercial illustrator after graduating from his studies.  Thus, he knew the processes quite well. 

Each of the paintings are on a 20×16 canvas. The paintings were composed in a multistep process which included drawing the can with pencil, painting the can and label by hand. Then used a light projector to superimpose the lettering onto the canvas. He hand stamped the fleur-de-lis on the edges of the bottom of the can. Which is another tell-tale sign that the cans were individually painted because the stamps are never quite in the same place. 

When asked why the artist had chosen this as a subject Andy quipped that he had eaten soup for lunch every day for a period of twenty years. 

With this multiple canvas painting he had reproduced an object of mass consumerism in the literal sense. 

These paintings are currently in the Musuem of Modern Art. 

Andy is quoted as saying: “ I don’t think art should be only for the select few it should be for the mass of the American people.” 

Andy’s Soup can portraits inspired The Campbell Soup Company to create a disposable wearable dress known as the Souper Dress where customers could mail in and receive the dress made of cellulose and cotton and featuring a repeating painting of soup cans. Although, Andy did not design the dress and was not involved in the manufacturing or design process it is clear that the food company capitalized on his success.

*Andy referred to these paintings as portraits. 

References:

 MoMA. “Campbell’s Soup Cans.” The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, 2020, www.moma.org/collection/works/79809. 

‌ “Campbell’s Soup Cans by Andy Warhol – the Museum of Modern Art.” Www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuLJKZscBJM. Accessed 11 May 2021.