Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

Let's talk a little about the social and artistic context in which Andy Warhol created this work of art. The year is 1962. The Beatles were playing their first songs in a London transformed by the swinging sixties, the baby boom had reached its peak after the terrible Second World War and, above all, a new era had begun: that of consumerism.

From a more artistic point of view, people were looking for a new type of art that would create a break with past centuries.

Andy Warhol lived in the frantic New York and, after working as a commercial artist, decided to create his own art. He wanted his art to be outside of the norm, and he found that feeling with the “Campbell's soup cans”. In July 1962, he presented his 32 paintings of cans in a row, as if in a supermarket, at an exhibition in New York.

Andy Warhol once said: “Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it”. And even if you don't understand the reasons of “Campbell's soup cans”, you can't say that this piece of art isn’t interesting from a graphic point of view. The colors are appealing, the resemblance to reality is quite confusing, and the near-perfect symmetry is pleasant. But with this quote, maybe the Pop artist also meant that this work of art referred to another beauty, that of his childhood, when he had the innocence to think that all the routines he had, like eating Campbell's soup cans every day, gave him protection against all life's problems.

Many people have argued that the meaning of this work of art is a critique of the consumerism era, claiming that Andy Warhol wanted to convey the message that consumer society turns us into machines that eat the same thing again and again, without creativity.

Perhaps but when a journalist asked him what the message of these 32 paintings was, he only replied: “I used to eat them, I ate the same meal every day for twenty years”.

And finally, should art always convey a message? It’s maybe an unpopular opinion but I'm convinced that no. For example, the sculpture of the Venus of Milo doesn’t need to convey a message to be just flabbergastingly beautiful, exactly the same for "The Starry Night." of Van Gogh. It doesn’t need a message to share emotions. However, I agree that at a time when inequalities are growing, people are being repressed, peace is being violated and our planet is suffering from climate change, it's clear that art must be a vector for raising awareness. And you, what do you think ?

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