Andy Warhol’s Golden Mushroom Soup, from Campbell’s Soup II, 1969 depicts a Campbell’s soup flavor that is popular even today. The soup flavor’s name is written in red and a font reminiscent of the Old West, a departure from the block lettering it is surrounded by and of other Warhol soup cans. The flavor’s name in red echoes the vibrant red of the top half of the label, making a cohesive image. Golden Mushroom Soup is a vivid and celebrated Warhol work.

The Campbell’s brand was, and still is, a household name. Warhol is known for his fascination with consumer culture; these works evoke the brand’s advertisements. Warhol also had a more personal connection to the subject. He once stated “I used to drink it. I used to have the same lunch every day, for 20 years…the same thing over and over again.” 

Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup II contains ten screenprints, each depicting a different flavor of the brand’s soup. This portfolio focuses on some of the more unusual types of soup that Campbell’s made, and the labels have idiosyncratic graphics added to the typical Campbell’s soup label. Added graphics such as banners and stylized text break up the uniformity of the soup cans, but Warhol’s interest in repetition is still foregrounded in this portfolio’s soup cans’ consistent coloring, and identical heights and widths.

Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans propelled him to fame. The first series of soup cans was made in 1962 and was painted by hand. Switching to screenprinting for this 1968 portfolio allowed Warhol to make each work more consistent, further mimicking the actual cans of soup they were modeled after.

Drawing on the uniformity of the actual mass-produced object, each screenprint depicts a can of identical height and width, and with near-identical coloring.

Created in 1969, Andy Warhol’s Golden Mushroom Soup, from Campbell’s Soup is a color screenprint on Lenox Museum Board and is hand signed in ballpoint pen on verso. It is a unique work of an edition of 250, published by Factory Additions, New York and printed by Salvatore Silkscreen Co., Inc., New York.

Warhol’s earlier portfolio, Campbell’s Soup I, created in 1968, includes  Tomato Soup, Beef Soup, Onion Soup, Consomme (Beef), Cream of Mushroom, Pepper Pot, Black Bean, Green Pea, Chicken Noodle, Vegetable Made with Beef Stock.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
Andy Warhol Golden Mushroom Soup, from Campbell’s Soup II, 1969 is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the sale of the work):

1. Feldman, F. and Schellmann, J. Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962 – 1987, 4th Ed. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, Inc.: 2003. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. II.62.
2. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this artwork.

About the Framing:
Framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, Andy Warhol Golden Mushroom Soup, from Campbell’s Soup II, 1969 is presented in a complementary moulding and optical grade Plexiglas.