Andy WARHOL - Campbells Soup II: Chicken N Dumplings (FS II.58)

Title: Campbells Soup II: Chicken N Dumplings (FS II58)
Medium: Screenprint on paper.
Year: 1969
Size: 35″ x 23″
Edition: Edition of 250. Signed and numbered in ballpoint pen and numbered with a rubber stamp on verso.

CAMPBELLS SOUP II: CHICKEN N DUMPLINGS 58

Warhol’s collection of Campbell’s soup cans is arguably his most iconic and widely recognized series of artwork. In this collection, Warhol takes the ever-present American pantry staple and transforms it into high art. Warhol, originally a commercial graphic artist, found the imagery of the Campbell’s soup label a powerful visual tool, since the design had remained successfully unchanged for decades.

CAMPBELLS SOUP II: CHICKEN N DUMPLINGS 58 AS PART OF ANDY WARHOL’S LARGER BODY OF WORK

The soup can was a legitimate subject as a modern ‘still life’ during the postwar American economy. First shown at the Ferus Gallery (Los Angeles) in 1962, the exhibit started as a series of paintings and established Warhol’s first solo exhibition as an overnight success. Furthermore, Warhol had just started to experiment with screenprinting that year, a medium that would change the art world forever. Some of the most famous and recognizable images in art history, the Soup Cans by Andy Warhol helped to usher in the Pop Art movement that endures today, renewed and rediscovered by artists such as Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons.