Andy Warhol collapsed boundaries between high and low culture, art and life. He began as a commercial artist, quickly gaining a reputation that led to high-profile clients. Warhol adapted commercial techniques and subject matter to create his own art and became a central figure in the Pop art movement. Like other Pop artists, he was influenced by the booming post-war consumer culture. He was also fascinated with fame. Warhol’s own celebrity status gained him access to the most important personalities of his era and he was obsessed with documenting his every encounter in writing, audio recordings and films.
Warhols’s depictions of mass-produced items like Coca-Cola bottles and Campbell’s soup cans became cultural icons. The Campbell’s brand, with its familiar red and white label, originated in the late nineteenth century. It gained widespread recognition throughout the twentieth century, especially following the surge in mass production and advertising after World War II. Warhol claimed that he consumed Campbell’s soup every day for 20 years. For him, it was the quintessential American product. He first showed the series ‘Campbell’s Soup Cans’ in 1962. Canvases representing each of the 32 varieties then available were displayed on shelves as if in a grocery store.
By late 1962, Warhol adopted the photo-silkscreen or screenprint technique used to make ‘Campbell's Soup I’ (1968), a set of 10 soup cans. Originally developed for commercial purposes, this printmaking method became Warhol’s signature medium, aligning his artistic processes more closely with those of advertisements.