We all know Warhol for his pop art paintings and especially for his colorful silkscreens. However, he started from nothing. Born in Pittsburgh in 1928, Andrew Warhola (his birth name) moved to New York in 1949 and started a career as an advertising designer. He adopted the name Andy Warhol at that time. He quickly became one of the most renowned advertising designers of the 1950s.
Warhol increasingly abandoned drawing for painting, and it was when Warhol exhibited his paintings of Campbell's soup cans in 1962 that pop art was really born. The idea was suggested by Muriel Latow, Warhol's commercial art assistant in the late 1950s, who suggested that he paint "something that you see every day and something that everybody can recognize. Something like a Campbell's soup can." Warhol has also worked with other consumer objects, such as Pepsi can caps. He also reproduced world stars and personalities of the time, such as Marilyn Monroe or Mao.
Unlike traditional fine art, pop art was not about beauty or pure aesthetics. It consisted in emphasizing the elements of American popular culture, making fun of consumer products. And pop art would soon become mass-produced as well. Warhol denounces through his works this popular culture obsessed with money and fame, although being himself obsessed with fortune and fame.
YEAR: Cica 1975
CLASSIFICATION: Unique
DIMENSIONS: 4 x 2 in - 10 x 6,8 cm
MEDIUM/MATERIALS: Black marker on Campbell’s can
SIGNATURE: Signed in black marker by Andy Warhol. Stamped by the Warhol Factory