Campbell's Soup Cans
Warhol's Campbell's
Soup cans are key works of the Pop art movement of the 1960s where many
artists began making work derived from popular culture. Warhol's soup cans
elevate the simply popular or everyday to the status of art. Campbell's
and its red and white label date from the late nineteenth century and became
more and more familiar in the twentieth, particularly with the increase
in mass production and advertising after World War II. Warhol himself said
"pop art is about liking things" and claimed that he ate Campbell's soup every day for twenty years. Although, perhaps an exaggeration and media play, Warhol nevertheless loved Campbell's soup. For him it was the quintessential American product. Like Coke, the artist marveled that whether prince or pauper both always tasted the same.
Point of View by Pamela Allara, professor of art,
Brandeis University,
Massachusetts
"Soup as the humble meal celebrated by Daumier; soup as the melting pot in an increasingly homogenized America; soup as transition from homemade to pre-prepared item; soup as "good" or "bad" taste, both on the tongue, and as advertising design. Peeling back the label to reveal a generic shape of the machine age generates food for thoughts: who tracked its route down the assembly line? Who are the taste-makers who determined the flavors of its contents, defining good and bad in terms of sales potential? What were the mechanisms involved in its delivery? Why would Warhol claim that he ate it every day?"
Point of View by Wayne Koestenbaum, poet and critic
"I've always found it tremendous fun to strip the label off a can - an act of violent, seductive denuding. Deprived of its paper vestment, a can is anonymous, cold, and eternal as a Greek temple's column. The lacerations in the label are like St. Sebastian's wounds - sadomasochistically homoerotic. The unpeeling paper also resembles a spool of 16mm film, the strip of curvy celluloid loosening from its reel."
Point of View by Tom Laskow, CAPA High School student
"The Campbell's Soup Can series makes me laugh. In this particular piece I want to know who the brat was that ripped the label. The simplicity of Warhol's work frustrates me. The Campbell's Soup Can painting conjures up the same emotions as a paper clip or a post-it note: "Why didn't I think of that?" Lifting a soup can up to the level of art doesn't put Warhol in league with Raphael, but it does show some Thomas Edison-style ingenuity. The Campbell's series confirms that if Warhol had but one virtue it was awareness. We are all bombarded by popular culture and Warhol was able to recognize that overwhelming influence. He took a soup can, an image recognized by all, and elevated to the level of art. I'd call him the All-American artist because he made his medium accessible to people of every class and race. The bright color and provocatively bland subject of the Campbell’s series make room for disagreement among the College educated as much as high school drop-outs.'"
Andy Warhol, photo Greg Gorman, 1983
