Packaging tribute to pop art's pioneer

Just over a half a century since a painting of 32 cans of soup and pop artist Andy Warhol became inextricably linked in the annals of art history, Campbell's Soup in Australia has launched a packaging tribute to the iconic artwork.

Campbell's-Arnott's, the company's Australian subsidiary, last week unveiled a limited edition range of its Condensed Tomato soup sporting four different labels derived from Warhol's artwork.

Available exclusively in Woolworths supermarkets from June 26, the cans mark the 51st anniversary of the unveiling of the original artwork in 1962.

The special edition cans follow on a similar tribute a few months ago in Campbell's home market in the United States, marketing team assistant for the Australian company, Marnie Coorey, told PKN.

“It is a one-off thing for Woolworths, but it follows what I believe was also done in the US earlier this year,” she said.

Since Warhol's famous Campbell's Soup silk screen painting unveiled in 1962, the two names have become synonymous with one another.

Warhol was an American ad illustrator who became a leading artist in the 1960s Pop Art movement when his work “32 Campbell’s Soup Cans” propelled him into the public eye and played a pivotal role in the emergence of the genre as a whole.

Warhol followed up the initial painting with variations on the same theme, including crushed cans, and cans with broken lids.

Exactly why he chose to depict Campbell’s Soup cans is the subject of debate to this day.

The company said, however, that it's known the artist was a fan of the soup, once stating he ate it for lunch “for twenty years."

The limited edition cans were produced under licence from the not-for-profit Andy Warhol Foundation.

The latest tribute follows on the recent launch of limited edition bottles of Perrier mineral water which also celebrate Warhol's unique art style.