Andy Warhol Campbell’s Soup Cans
“I used to have the same lunch every day, for 20 years, the same thing over and over again…”
Andy Warhol’s earlier work in advertising inspired him, and the Campbell’s Soup Cans in particular, symbolised mass-produced, print advertising. Mimicking the repetition and uniformity of advertising by carefully reproducing the same image across each individual canvas, he varied only the label on the front of each can. In 1962, the year in which Pop Art was established as the latest major artistic movement, Andy Warhol began his transition from hand-painted to photo-transferred art with a groundbreaking series of works. While these pieces mimicked a mechanical method of production, they were in fact hand-painted. The set of works was called simply Campbell’s Soup Cans, and would become one of the most iconic, signature pieces of his career.
Searching for subjects for painting, it was a friend’s suggestion that he paint something everybody recognised, “like Campbell’s Soup”, which gave Warhol his subject. Projections of the cans were traced onto canvas and hand-painted, making this first and original ‘batch’ of soup cans a work which appeared more uniform and mechanically produced than it really was.
Letitia Morris Gallery is pleased to present a collection of original silkscreen Campbell’s Soup Can posters, printed by Sunday B. Morning. These original silkscreen posters one of Andy Warhol’s most iconic works and a true summation of consumerism and counterculture. It is a deeper message in these works that goes beyond the simple soup can. It taps into a world of overconsumption, production, consumerism, and greed. On the surface, they may seem superficial, but it’s as if Warhol put up a mirror to the world.
“I try to solve their problems, but in solving their problems take an opportunity to find that extra twist that adds the magic.” The art posters he did for IBM are a good example of this. IBM asked him to design a placard for their new Paris headquarters, which said a painting would shortly arrive for the space on the wall occupied by the placard. In response he produced a series of posters interpreting the word “art” as defined by an author or artist, and added the line, ‘Quest for Quality: an IBM exhibition’ along the bottom of each poster. The artwork image for each poster was thoughtfully interpreted by Fletcher and in turn reflected his keen eye and sense of humour. Keeping each poster in greyscale and black and white unified the series thematically, each poster telling a unique story. By incorporating quotes by well-known figures such as F Scott Fitzgerald and Confucius to J.F. Kennedy, the posters remain universal as well as personal.
