Andy Warhol's paintings of Campbell Soup Cans

This paper considers Andy Warhol's paintings of Campbell Soup cans in the light of French intellectual Jean Baudrillard's concept of hyperreality. Baudrillard, who does not consider himself an expert in art criticism, nevertheless argues for Warhol as one of the most important postmodern figures - an artist whose work captured an essential essence of contemporary cultural reality by using a copy of one of the most banal and ordinary products manufactured by that culture and holding it up for consideration as a work of art.

Mike Gane writes,"Jean Baudrillard is one of France's leading intellectuals, with a growing world reputation" (1). One of his most striking concepts is hyperreality, a phrase used by others (including Umberto Eco) but given special meaning by Baudrillard. As Nick Perry explains the concept, "It corresponds to that . . . general contemporary condition in which both representation and reality have been displaced by simulacra (defined as copies without originals)" (1).

While Baudrillard is most concerned with social criticism and cultural theory, especially as it applies to American culture, his approach has been applied as well to art and art criticism, an application he professes to find surprising:

My interest in the object has always been for the non-aesthetic object, the banal object, or the metaphysical object. I've never really been concerned with the aesthetic object . . . . But on second thoughts, one might think of art criticism as somethin

Related Essays

Two Works of Modernism .... In many ways he was an early version of Andy Warhol. .... of almost everyone from da Vinci to Warhol) tells us .... Tansey, Richard G. and Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner's Art .... (1554 6 )

Comparison of Seurat & Dechamp .... In many ways he was an early version of Andy Warhol. .... of almost everyone from da Vinci to Warhol) tells us .... Tansey, Richard G. and Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner's Art .... (1554 6 )

Mexican Culture, Art & Literary Artists .... In the 1960s Polish-American Andy Warhol rode high on a .... them Mexican philosopher- historian Jes �s Silva Herzog .... more prominent than in the paintings and murals .... (3813 15 )

ferred to a screen which can then be used repeatedly (Pratt 78). This use of an ordinary object as a symbol and comment on consumerism has been copied innumerable times with other objects (dven by Warhol hhmself), but Warhol's Campbell Soup image retains its place as the first and most visible expression of hyperreality. As Donald Judd, in a 1963 review, asks, "The salient metaphysical question lately is 'Why does Andy Warhol paint Campbell Soup cans?' The only available answer is 'Why not?'" (Pratt 2). The can connects with every viewer: everyone who sees Warhol's version understands its connection to the original. Every viewer has had just such a can in his or her kitchen pantry or, at the very least, seen it on a supermarket shelf. Yet by putting it on a canvas and hanging it in a gallery, Warhol takes the everyday and sanitizes it, puts a frame around, and changes what it is. Soup is transformed into art, and the viewer examines the art in ways and with a concentration never given to the everyday object. The original is forgotten, replaced by a two-dimensional representation that has become more real than the original, hyperreal, in fact. In Baudrillard's view, the original can ceases to exist for the viewer - or,

Category: Arts - A