Around 1961, Andy Warhol started painting cans of Campbell's soup, in all 32 varieties. He liked to tell people that his mother made him Campbell's soup and that's why he painted it. Warhol first exhibited his series of Campbell's soup can paintings in 1962, with the bottom of each painting resting on a shelf like a can would in a supermarket.
Warhol also apparently didn't have an order he wanted the paintings displayed in. Museum of Modern Art displays the paintings "in rows that reflect the chronological order in which (the soups) were introduced, beginning with 'Tomato' in the upper left, which debuted in 1897."
The soup cans are probably the most recognizable images in American art, and Warhol intended it that way. He borrowed the Campbell's brand fame to help make his own; he appeared in Time in 1962 as part of the Pop revolution that was remaking art - destroying the serious, sublime aspirations of artists like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Warhol was doing Campbell's soup at the same time he was painting Marilyn Monroe and Liz Taylor. In his art, Campbell's was a "star" like a movie pinup.
If you'd imagined Warhold stocking his pantry with cans of soup, then eating a can as he'd finished a painting, well it seems not. According to the Museum of Modern Art website, Warhol used a product list from Campbell's to assign a different flavor to each painting.
If you'd imagined Warhold stocking his pantry with cans of soup, then eating a can as he'd finished a painting, well it seems not. According to the Museum of Modern Art website, Warhol used a product list from Campbell's to assign a different flavor to each painting.
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