Andy Warhol

A seminal figure in the Pop Art movement of the early 1960s, Warhol, like his contemporaries Roy Lichtenstein and James Rosenquist, appropriated images from American popular culture for his large-scale paintings and prints. Seeking an alternative to the highly charged canvases of the Abstract Expressionists, Warhol rendered his serial images of cultural icons and common consumer items using the commercial technique of silkscreen. This slick image of a Campbell's soup can, taken from the second of two Soup Can portfolios produced by Warhol in the late 1960s, exemplifies his increasing interest in hands-off, mass-produced works of art. Its clean, mechanical surface and perfect registration contrast with his earlier paintings, which resonate with irregularities and imperfections.

Warhol considered the Campbell’s Soup cans to be his favorite and he continued with the themes he began with soup cans with the rest of his work. He continued to play with the soup cans, contorting them and altering them, however it is the classic examples that remain the most popular among collectors. When creating the original paintings rather than allowing the paint to drip like he had previously, Warhol instead pursued to maintain the appearance of mechanic reproduction. Also, it was with the Campbell’s Soup cans, that Warhol discovered that repetition drains an object of its meaning which he really explores with the disaster series. This portfolio also shows the reproduction of mass consumption in the most literal sense. Warhol was very interested in objects of mass consumption and American societies obsession with them.