Campbell's Soup Cans - Conclusion

Conclusion

Warhol's production of Campbell's Soup can works underwent three distinct phases. The first took place in 1962, during which he created realistic images, and produced numerous pencil drawings of the subject. In 1965, Warhol revisited the theme while arbitrarily replacing the original red and white colors with a wider variety of hues. In the late 1970s, he again returned to the soup cans while inverting and reversing the images. Some in the art world consider Warhol's work completed after his 1968 shooting—which occurred the day before the Bobby Kennedy assassination— to be less significant than that done before it.

Today, the most well-remembered Warhol Campbell's Soup can works are from the first phase. Warhol is further regarded for his iconic serial celebrity silkscreens of such people as Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Liz Taylor, produced during his 1962–1964 silkscreening phase. In fact, his most commonly repeated painting subjects are Taylor, Monroe, Presley, Jackie Kennedy and similar celebrities. In addition to being a notable fine artist, Warhol was a renowned cinematographer, author, and commercial illustrator. Posthumously, he became the subject of the largest single-artist art museum in the United States. Many Warhol art exhibits include footage of his cinematic directorial efforts (e.g., The Museum of Contemporary Art's ANDY WARHOL/SUPERNOVA: Stars, Deaths, Disasters, 1962–1964 that ran from March 18, 2006 – June 18, 2006). Some say his contributions as an artist pale in comparison to his contributions as a film-maker. Others make it clear that he was not the most conventionally skilled artist of his day. Nonetheless, his techniques were emulated by other highly respected artists and his works continue to command high prices.