Campbell's Soup Can

Artist Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987)

Date1962

MediumGraphite on wove paper

DimensionsImage: 10 1/8 x 5 3/4 inches (25.7 x 14.6 cm);
Sheet: 28 x 21 1/4 inches (71.1 x 54 cm)

ClassificationsDrawings

Credit LineAcquired through the Membership Purchase Fund

Terms

Drawings
Graphite
Soup cans
Trademarks
wove

Object number80.084

Label CopyWarhol made this drawing the same year as his now legendary 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans, a series of paintings first exhibited at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles and now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. These paintings were executed with barely a trace of the artist’s hand: Warhol would send the source image to a commercial printer who would “burn” it onto a silkscreen using light-sensitive photo emulsion. From there he would print the silkscreen onto canvas, which he would sometimes underpaint at the beginning and hand-stencil details in at the end. In his early paintings, he would also add additional accents such as hand-carved rubber stamps. The inexact lines of the drawing, unlike the almost fully mechanized process of silkscreening, attests to Warhol’s pre-fame occupation as an accomplished draftsman and graphic designer. ("This is no Less Curious: Journeys through the Collection" cocurated by Sonja Gandert, Alexandra Palmer, and Alana Ryder and presented at the Johnson Museum January 24 - April 12, 2015)

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