100 Campbell's Soup Cans

I first came upon Andy Warhol’s art in Santa Fe, at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. I had been looking at the most realistic paintings of flowers I had ever seen and suddenly I walked into room full of paintings and prints that looked like cartoons. It was brilliant. I was in love with Andy Warhol’s modern art. After that experience, I looked more into his work and that’s when I found the 100 Campbell’s Soup Cans.

It is extremely repetitive, as it is only a print of a painting of one can, but to this day, that print stands out to me as being one of best pieces of art of all time. It makes the observer question it. Why? Why 100 soup cans? That’s exactly the point, why did Andy Warhol turn his one soup can into 100 soup cans? It was innovative, imaginative, and absolutely ingenious. It’s not a print that demonstrates talent; it’s a print that shows the creative thinking of an intellectual and daring artist. Warhol took an object from everyday life, and turned it into something interesting to look at.

Andy Warhol has taken his soup can and worked it in all kinds of different ways. Sometimes it stands alone, sometimes the label is peeling off, sometimes it is a different color, and sometimes there are 32 cans, instead of 100. This new approach to art made Warhol a pioneer in the pop art movement, why shouldn’t this piece of art stand out among all others? It became famous worldwide after it was released. Not because people loved it suddenly. Some people may have hated it, others may have loved it. Regardless, people notice it when they walk by. It sparks a curiosity in people and they wonder to themselves, what this piece of art means and why did the artist create it.