Campbell’s Soup Cans…A Heartfelt Icon of American History

Andy Warhol was a great artist in the 1960’s. A great influence on the “Pop Art movement”, his paintings of Marilyn Monroe were iconic then and are still widely recognizable now. Besides his colorful, bright, and psychedelic works, however, there were the paintings and works of art that he composed that stood out the most; simple pictures of everyday objects. This was a completely new turn on art yet a very new concept to be put forth. As writers write about what interests them, or “what they know”, Warhol put this to work on canvas by painting some of his simplest, yet most effective, unforgettable works of art: the “Campbell’s Soup Cans” collection.
As a child, Warhol ate a bowl of soup everyday. The Campbell’s company was already famous and an important, valid part of many American homes, and had been for nearly a century, by the time he decided to produce paintings of various flavors of the company’s soup cans, but the collection shed new light and focus to the soup itself, as well as to the concept of popular culture artwork. It was marveled ar that such a basic idea, with an ordinary design, could provoke such deep and intense feelings amongst people, and could become so widely renowned. A painting of a soup can could be turned into a collection of thirty-two, and set up to look like a grocery store isle, something so often taken for granted, only to still be highly famed and remembered years later, with commemoration contests, exhibits, and memorabilia set up to honor it.
When I look at any of the given Campbell’s Soup Can paintings, I feel warm inside. It’s a happy, nice, and thoughtful feeling that provokes memories of childhood and simplicity. I am not alone in my feelings, as I am sure many others feel the same as I do, judging by and explaining the popularity of the collection. It allows people to be happy, to understand, to think, and to feel, all with a basic depiction of an item that they typically would not take the time to think twice about, and it is because of this that the simple portraits truly are a work of art.