Andy Warhol, the protagonist of American pop art, immortalized himself in the collective memory as an eccentric extrovert with dark sunglasses and a blond wig. It is less widely known that Warhol actually was a reserved, solitary person who, from the late 1960s onwards, adopted his flamboyant appearance as both armor and trademark. It was only during his time at the College of Fine Arts at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in his hometown of Pittsburgh that the frail and ever-pale student with severe skin problems could overcome his trauma of exclusion due to his outstanding artistic talent. His art thus became both a refuge and a source of recognition for the solitary Warhol throughout his life. In the summer of 1949, at the age of only 21, he moved to New York City, where he initially worked as a commercial artist. In the years that followed, his drawings, photographs, paintings, and prints made him a celebrated observer and chronicler of his time.

Warhol received his first commission for “Glamour” magazine in the fall of 1949, creating his first shoe drawings for advertising purposes. Henceforth, his background as a commercial artist found expression in his minimalist, strictly linear drawing style. He later transferred this style to screen prints with the help of stencils, as in this famous series “Campbell's Soup Can,” which became his unmistakable artistic signature. From then on, Warhol not only focused on celebrities but also repeatedly depicted American products and consumer goods, successfully creating an entirely new way of presenting objects. His bold and practical approach explored the boundaries between art and advertising, thereby linking Warhol's artistic vision with the revolutionary innovator of modern art, Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp declared industrial products to be art solely through the manner and context of their presentation, as is the case with one of his most famous "readymades", the legendary “Bottle Rack.”
Warhol found inspiration in New York's supermarkets, where goods were no longer sold over the counter, but in huge quantities and on a self-service basis. Stacked in various flavors and seemingly endless rows, the famous canned soup from Campbell's, a company founded in 1869, was one of the best-selling products in this promising era of economic prosperity, known for its iconic red and white label and distinctive lettering. It was this can and the special way it was presented that inspired Warhol to create his first serial painting in early 1962. Warhol painted 32 canvases, each measuring 50 x 40 centimeters, displaying a Campbell's soup can in an identical perspective. The only variation across the 32 canvases – apart from minimal deviations due to the manual execution with the aid of stencils – is the advertised flavor, which ranges from “Tomato” to “Chicken Vegetable” or “Pepper Pot” to “Cheddar Cheese.” This wall-filling series of paintings was first exhibited at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in the summer of 1962. Today, one of the highlights of the Museum of Modern Art's collection in New York caused considerable bewilderment among the art-loving public at the time due to its downright disturbing, profane subject matter, which felt like an endless series. The press, searching for a deeper meaning in the images, asked Warhol questions such as: “What do your rows of Campbell's Soup Cans signify?” and “Why did you start painting soup cans?” But Warhol's explanations for his art are just as mundane as the images he chose to depict. Warhol replied, for example, “Why, I ate Campbell's soup, well I had soup and a sandwich for 20 years,” or “Because I used to drink it. I used to have the same lunch every day for over twenty years. I guess, the same thing over and over again.” In another context, however, Warhol also recounted the following touching childhood anecdote: “[...] when I was little my mother always used to feed us this kind of soup. But now she's gone, and sometimes when I have soup I remember her and I feel she's right here with me again.” (quoted from: Frei/Printz (eds). The Andy Warhol catalogue raisonné, vol. 1, cat. no. 51).
Also in 1962, Warhol's serial paintings of stamps, dollar bills, and Coke bottles followed. For these, the artist again frequently used stencils or stamps before finally employing the silkscreen technique in August 1962 for his now iconic “Marilyn” series of paintings. He perfected this technique in 1967 with his first famous series of ten color silkscreen prints, published as the inaugural work in his legendary Factory Additions. Likewise, in 1968, Warhol took up another iconic motif for a series of color silkscreen prints with his first print series, “Campbell's Soup Can.” Today, this is one of his most famous and internationally sought-after motifs. Just one year later, this iconic series was followed by a second, more varied “Campbell's Soup Can” portfolio. The famous set of his “Flowers,” also based on a series of paintings, was finally followed in 1970. With his selection for these legendary silkscreen editions, Warhol declared three motifs to be among his most important works and among the most significant motifs of Pop Art: “Marilyn” (1967), “Campbell's Soup Cans” (1968), and “Flowers” (1970). [JS]