To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Andy
Warhol's iconic works “32 Campbell’s Soup Cans,” Campbell Soup is releasing four limited-edition cans of its condensed tomato soup with labels featuring vibrant, Warhol-like
color combinations.
The cans, produced under license from The Andy Warhol Foundation, will be available exclusively at most U.S. Target locations, priced at $0.75, starting Sept. 2.
Campbell is also offering a “15 minutes of fame” app, on ArtofSoup.com, which enables users to turn their photos into a Warhol-inspired “work of art” that can be shared with
friends. Some fans' photos will be featured as the cover photos on the Campbell's Condensed Facebook page.
In addition, Campbell is
the “education sponsor” for The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition “Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years,” opening Sept. 18.
Warhol showed the
original soup-can paintings -- 32 separate canvases, each depicting a variety of Campbell's soup, displayed side-by-side to mimic products on a grocery shelf -- at his first solo gallery exhibition in
Los Angeles in 1962. The works helped launch Warhol's career and establish Pop Art as a major art movement in the United States. Asked why he painted Campbell's soup cans, Warhol said that he had
eaten the soup every day for lunch for 20 years.
After some initial concerns about Warhol's choice of subject matter, Campbell Soup became a supporter of the artist, sending him cases of its
tomato soup, commissioning two paintings, and establishing the Andy Warhol Scholarship Fund with the New York Art Academy. The company currently displays an original Warhol painting at its Camden,
N.J. headquarters.