Andy Warhol is one of the most influential artists of all time, spearheading the pop art movement, one of his most famous works is “Campbell’s soup cans” from 1962. “Campbell’s soup cans” is an artwork that is comprised of thirty-two 20 by 16-inch canvases, each canvas was hand painted, and they were all identical, save from the flavor of soup. There were 32 cans painted by Warhol in total, one for each variety of soup the Campbell’s soup company produced at the time, the most popular painting shown is the tomato soup can. Warhol’s used representational form and occasionally non-representational color to create these artworks.
Warhol painted the soup cans by using synthetic polymer paint, which is paint that is made from a pigment that is suspending in an acrylic polymer emulsion on canvas, Warhol later recreated these painting using a printmaking type method. Warhol wanted to “mass produce” his art and make it available to everyone who wanted it, so he adopted a photo-silkscreen method that was traditionally reserved for advertising. Andy Warhol believed in the idea of mass-producing popular images. Warhol often had his employees create the prints for him in an assembly line like process.
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Andy Warhol uses a utilitarian art style. He painted the soup cans because Campbell’s soup was something that Warhol enjoyed while working in his art studio. The soup cans, along with other subjects of his other works like the Coca Cola bottles. Warhol made it a point to let it be known that he did not paint the cans because of any kind of commercial endeavor with the Campbell’s Soup Company, he simply painted the cans because he enjoyed the soup. Andy Warhol’s pop artwork did not really have any kind of theme, the paintings in that respect are “what you see is what you get.” He painted them to commemorate his enjoyment of Campbell’s soup.
Warhol’s art does not follow they conventional elements of design because he is simply just reproducing an everyday item instead of making something of his own, so that makes it difficult for me to really pinpoint which elements that are used in the creation of the can. Given that the can is an object that already exists using the same colors that Campbell’s use to make the can in real life. Along with the same shape, form, and texture as the can would have in real life.
Andy Warhol created these pieces to push the boundaries of what could be considered art, Warhol wanted to paint the soup cans because he enjoyed painting the things he enjoyed in his life, he added nothing to the art, but instead, he took something as simple as a soup can, and used it to make something that was still art, but something new and different. In a way, Warhol is asking “can this be art?” and he did something unique, by painting something that was not special at all, and in the process making something that was loved by very many. As a result of this venture, Andy Warhol succeeded in creating art that forwent any semblance of creativity, but instead, finding beauty in an everyday item that people would otherwise not even bat an eye at, bringing out the art that surrounds us in our everyday lives. Warhol’s work comes during the pop art movement, where the typical conventions of fine art were being challenged. When artists were using items that people were very familiar with, sometimes changing it, by adding or taking away from it, along with mass producing art, along with making art through mechanical means, similar to Warhol did in his art studio he called “The Factory” where he would not only produce art with his employees, but host many high profile artists and celebrities.
In conclusion, Andy Warhol’s art was game changing because of how his art makes us look at the objects we look at every day, and begs the question of what can be considered art. I, personally have always really liked Warhol’s work, I think that his work does his job properly of making me look at the objects I use and interact with daily and gain a better appreciation for them, I find myself looking at advertisements and the way things are designed too, I remembered thinking that making the soup cans was very uncreative and bland, but as ive gotten older I see the point of wanting people to look at every day objects differently. Along with rejecting the conventions of fine art, and the notion that art is only for the wealthy
Works Cited
- Discovering Design, https://blogs.lt.vt.edu/emilyborg/andy-warhol-and-color/.
- “MoMA Learning.” MoMA, https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/andy-warhol-campbells-soup-cans-1962/.
- Peyovski, Peyo. “Andy Warhol’s Silk-Screening Process: Hamilton-Selway.” Hamilton, Hamilton Selway, 4 May 2017, https://hamiltonselway.com/andy-warhols-silk-screening-process/.
- “Why Is This Art? Andy Warhol, Campbell's Soup Cans.” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/pop/v/andy-warhol-campbell-s-soup-cans-why-is-this-art.
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