2nd September, 2011

Campbell's Soup I

It was 1999 when my sister had asked if I would like accompanying her into the City and checking out 'Art Express'. It was an art exhibition displaying "a selection of outstanding works from the 1999 HSC Examination in Visual Arts" (Board of Studies, 1999). I had always possessed a passion for art. Something about seeing painted images on canvas's struck a happy nerve inside me that I felt drawn to. In the coming years I would make it a yearly event to go to such exhibitions like The Archibald Prize and Sculptures by the Sea. I can recall the below image, Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup I (1968), to be the very first piece of Art that I purchased. It was a postcard-sized print that I framed, and hung in my kitchen. I remember thinking how cool it was to actually own a piece of art from a famous artist. Andrew Warhol, Jr. (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987), known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter, avant-garde filmmaker, record producer, author, and member of highly diverse social circles that included Bohemian Street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy patrons.
Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books, and feature and documentary films. He coined the widely used expression "15 minutes of fame." In his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, The Andy Warhol Museum exists in memory of his life and artwork.
The highest price ever paid for a Warhol painting is US$100 million for a 1963 canvas titled Eight Elvises. The private transaction was reported in a 2009 article in The Economist, which described Warhol as the "bellwether of the art market." $100 million is a benchmark price that only Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-August Renoir, Gustav Klimt and Willem de Kooning have achieved (Wikipedia, 2011).
There have been many variations created from the original text.  His "Big Torn Campbell’s Soup Can (Pepper Pot), (1962)", was also a favourite of mine, it would be a perfect accompaniment to hang along side my other framed print... and a few months later it was!