Campbell's Soup Cans (1962)
Museum of Modern Art, New York
32 small canvases, one for each Campbell's soup variety, each a red-and-white can; first shown at the Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles
Image: Brandon Fick · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Art
Andy Warhol
1928–1987 · American
Pop Art
Andy Warhol was the leading figure of American Pop Art. A former commercial illustrator, he used silkscreen printing to mass-produce images of consumer products, celebrities and news disasters, erasing the line between fine art and commerce and making fame itself his subject.
How to spot them
- ▸Grids of the same image repeated side by side, often a celebrity face (Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, Mao, Liz Taylor) in garish, flat, off-register colours
- ▸Silkscreened photographs with visible printing flaws — smudges, fading, colour blocks slightly misaligned with the features
- ▸Everyday branded products presented as art: Campbell's soup cans, Coca-Cola bottles, Brillo boxes
- ▸Dark 'Death and Disaster' images of car crashes, electric chairs and suicides, often on silver or monochrome grounds
Key works
Marilyn Diptych (1962)
Tate Modern, London
50 images of Marilyn Monroe's face: bright colour on the left, fading black and white on the right; made weeks after her death
No free image available (likely still in copyright) · see it on Wikipedia
Shot Marilyns (1964)
Various (mostly private collections)
Single Marilyn portraits on flat red, orange, light blue, sage blue and turquoise grounds; four were shot with a revolver at the Factory
No free image available (likely still in copyright) · see it on Wikipedia
Eight Elvises (1963)
Private collection
Eight overlapping images of Elvis Presley as a gun-drawing cowboy on a silver background
No free image available (likely still in copyright) · see it on Wikipedia
Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) (1963)
Private collection
Repeated news photo of a body in a mangled car across silver panels; sold for about $105 million in 2013
No free image available (likely still in copyright) · see it on Wikipedia
Brillo Boxes (1964)
Various collections
Painted wooden boxes silkscreened to look exactly like supermarket Brillo soap-pad cartons
Image: Lasse Olsson / Pressens bild · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Quick-fire facts
- •Born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh in 1928 to parents from what is now Slovakia; died in New York in 1987 after gallbladder surgery
- •Worked as a successful commercial illustrator in New York in the 1950s before turning to fine art
- •His studio, The Factory, was a hub for artists, musicians and "superstars"
- •Managed and produced the Velvet Underground; he designed the banana cover of The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
- •Was shot and seriously wounded by Valerie Solanas in 1968
- •Credited with the phrase that in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes
- •Founded Interview magazine in 1969
- •Shot Sage Blue Marilyn sold for $195 million in 2022, a record for an American artist at auction; the Andy Warhol Museum is in Pittsburgh
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Sources
- Tate — Marilyn Diptych
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Andy Warhol
- Wikipedia — Andy Warhol