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ANDY WARHOL CAMPBELL'S SOUP CANS 1962

 * On view

 * MoMA, Floor 4, 412 The David Geffen Wing

When asked why he chose to paint Campbell’s soup cans, Warhol offered a deadpan
reply: “I used to have the same lunch every day, for twenty years, I guess, the
same thing over and over again.” That daily meal is the subject of this work
consisting of thirty-two canvases—one for each of the flavors then sold by
Campbell’s—using a combination of projection, tracing, painting, and stamping.
Repeating the nearly identical image, the canvases at once stress the uniformity
and ubiquity of the product’s packaging and subvert the idea of painting as a
medium of invention and originality.

> Gallery label from 2020

Additional text

When asked why he chose to paint Campbell’s soup cans, Warhol offered a deadpan
reply: “I used to have the same lunch every day, for twenty years, I guess, the
same thing over and over again.” That daily meal is the subject of this work
consisting of thirty-two canvases—one for each of the flavors then sold by
Campbell’s—using a combination of projection, tracing, painting, and stamping.
Repeating the nearly identical image, the canvases at once stress the uniformity
and ubiquity of the product’s packaging and subvert the idea of painting as a
medium of invention and originality.

> Gallery label from 2019

“I don’t think art should be only for the select few,” Warhol said. “I think it
should be for the mass of the American people.” Like other Pop artists, Warhol
used images with wide appeal: comic strips, advertisements, photographs of
rock-music icons and movie stars, and tabloid news shots. In Campbell’s Soup
Cans he reproduced an object of mass consumption in the most literal sense. When
he first exhibited these canvases—there are thirty-two of them, the number of
soup varieties Campbell’s then sold—each one simultaneously hung from the wall,
like a painting, and stood on a shelf, like groceries in a store. The artist
referred to them affectionately as “portraits.”

Warhol made these paintings in a systematic multistep process. First he
delineated each can with pencil on canvas. Next he painted the can and label by
hand, using a light projector to superimpose the lettering directly onto the
canvas, then tracing its form. Repeating the nearly identical image at the same
scale, the canvases stress the uniformity and pervasiveness of the Campbell’s
can, thereby challenging the prevailing idea of painting as a medium of
invention and originality distinct from popular culture. The Campbell’s label,
which had not changed in more than fifty years, was unremarkable and ubiquitous.
Warhol later said of Campbell’s soup, “I used to drink it. I used to have the
same lunch every day, for twenty years, I guess, the same thing over and over
again.”

> Publication excerpt from MoMA Highlights: 375 Works from The Museum of Modern
> Art, New York (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2019)

Andy Warhol famously appropriated familiar images from consumer culture and mass
media, among them celebrity and tabloid news photographs, comic strips, and, in
this work, the widely consumed canned soup made by the Campbell’s Soup Company.
When he first exhibited Campbell’s Soup Cans in 1962, the canvases were
displayed together on shelves, like products in a grocery aisle. At the time,
Campbell’s sold 32 soup varieties; each one of Warhol’s 32 canvases corresponds
to a different flavor. (The first flavor the company introduced, in 1897, was
tomato).

Though Campbell’s Soup Cans resembles the mass-produced, printed advertisements
by which Warhol was inspired, its canvases are hand-painted, and the fleur de
lys pattern ringing each can’s bottom edge is hand-stamped. Warhol mimicked the
repetition and uniformity of advertising by carefully reproducing the same image
across each individual canvas. He varied only the label on the front of each
can, distinguishing them by their variety. Warhol said of Campbell’s soup, “I
used to drink it. I used to have the same lunch every day, for 20 years, I
guess, the same thing over and over again.”

Towards the end of 1962, shortly after he completed Campbell’s Soup Cans, Warhol
turned to the photo-silkscreen process. A printmaking technique originally
invented for commercial use, it would become his signature medium and link his
art making methods more closely to those of advertisements. “I don’t think art
should be only for the select few,” he claimed, “I think it should be for the
mass of the American people.”

> 

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Medium Acrylic with metallic enamel paint on canvas, 32 panels
Dimensions Each canvas 20 x 16" (50.8 x 40.6 cm). Overall installation
with 3" between each panel is 97" high x 163" wide
Credit Partial gift of Irving Blum Additional funding provided by Nelson A.
Rockefeller
Bequest, gift of Mr. and Mrs. William A. M. Burden, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller
Fund, gift of Nina and Gordon Bunshaft, acquired through the Lillie P.
Bliss Bequest, Philip Johnson Fund, Frances R. Keech Bequest, gift of
Mrs. Bliss Parkinson, and Florence B. Wesley Bequest (all by exchange)
Object number 476.1996.1-32
Copyright © 2024 Andy Warhol Foundation / ARS, NY / TM
Licensed by Campbell's Soup Co. All rights reserved.
Department Painting and Sculpture
 * Andy Warhol has 271 works online.
 * There are 2,423 paintings online.




INSTALLATION VIEWS

We have identified these works in the following photos from our exhibition
history.

 * Andy Warhol: A Retrospective
   
   Feb 6–May 2, 1989

 * High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture
   
   Oct 7, 1990–Jan 15, 1991
   
   1 other work identified

 * High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture
   
   Oct 7, 1990–Jan 15, 1991

 * Making Choices
   
   Mar 16–Sep 26, 2000
   
   2 other works identified

 * Open Ends
   
   Sep 28, 2000–Mar 4, 2001

 * To Be Looked At: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection
   
   Jul 3, 2002–Sep 6, 2004

 * To Be Looked At: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection
   
   Jul 3, 2002–Sep 6, 2004
   
   3 other works identified

 * To Be Looked At: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection
   
   Jul 3, 2002–Sep 6, 2004

 * To Be Looked At: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection
   
   Jul 3, 2002–Sep 6, 2004
   
   5 other works identified

 * Painting & Sculpture II
   
   Nov 20, 2004–Aug 5, 2015
   
   2 other works identified

 * On to Pop
   
   Sep 29, 2010–May 9, 2011

 * On to Pop
   
   Sep 29, 2010–May 9, 2011
   
   2 other works identified

 * On to Pop
   
   Sep 29, 2010–May 9, 2011
   
   1 other work identified

 * On to Pop
   
   Sep 29, 2010–May 9, 2011
   
   2 other works identified

 * On to Pop
   
   Sep 29, 2010–May 9, 2011
   
   2 other works identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   16 other works identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   3 other works identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   1 other work identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   2 other works identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   1 other work identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   1 other work identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   3 other works identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   7 other works identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   8 other works identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   8 other works identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   6 other works identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   6 other works identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   6 other works identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   1 other work identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   5 other works identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   11 other works identified

 * Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967
   
   Apr 25–Oct 18, 2015
   
   2 other works identified

 * 412: From Soup Cans to Flying Saucers
   
   Fall 2019–Fall 2020
   
   2 other works identified

 * 412: From Soup Cans to Flying Saucers
   
   Fall 2019–Fall 2020
   
   10 other works identified

 * 412: From Soup Cans to Flying Saucers
   
   Fall 2019–Fall 2020
   
   4 other works identified

 * 412: Domestic Disruption
   
   Ongoing
   
   6 other works identified

 * 412: Domestic Disruption
   
   Ongoing
   
   9 other works identified

How we identified these works

In 2018–19, MoMA collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a project using
machine learning to identify artworks in installation photos. That project has
concluded, and works are now being identified by MoMA staff.

If you notice an error, please contact us at digital@moma.org.

Licensing

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection,
or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation
views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication
in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic
locations).

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our
film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by
MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film
clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at firenze@scalarchives.com. Motion
picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion
picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center
at fsc@moma.org. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film
and Video Library, please visit https://www.moma.org/research/circulating-film.

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email
text_permissions@moma.org. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s
archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to
archives@moma.org.

Feedback

This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted
an error, please send feedback to digital@moma.org.

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