dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

There are 85 millions of Campbell's Tomato Soup sold each year. Andy Warhol found a mint in his~! Why did the rest of the world in 1962 not find a mint in their empty can?

Presented here is my interpretation of "A MINT IN A TOMATO SOUP CAN" Accomplished with a real can, real money, and simple photo edit tools to create photo art.

I followed the rule of 1/3, both side to side and up down. Campbell seal and Washington's face are at 1/3, 2/3 respectively. The yin/yang left bright right dark is suggested. Change in brightness in front of the can suggests distance depth.

I welcome, critiques, suggestion, interpretations, your modifications of this or other "canned art"

"Andy Warhol’s Soup Cans have become synonymous with the Pop art movement, and are responsible for propelling Warhol into a celebrated career in fine art from his day job as a comic illustrator. The motif made its debut in 1962 when Warhol mounted his first solo show featuring 32 canvases painted with Campbell’s Soup Cans—one for each flavor the company sold at the time. But the cans weren’t instantly beloved as they are now. Most critics snubbed the work for its commercial and mundane subject matter, and when the show closed, the gallery’s owner Irving Blum purchased the entire collection for $1,000. Before long, Warhol was using silkscreen to mint the celebrity portraits that would make him a household name. Today, Warhol’s Soup Cans fetch a much higher price—the auction record for the series, $11.8 million, was set by Small Torn Campbell’s Soup Can (Pepper Pot) (1962) in 2006."
https://www.artsy.net/artist-series/andy-warhol-tomato-soup

ANDY FOUND A MINT IN SOUP CAN

(Download)

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

Andy would be proud of you. I like the whole concept of the shot.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Thank you. Staging, simple camera and simple photo edit tools to polish is what I used.

It did not take much for Ol' Andy to paint the can, then paint again and again with 32 flavor variations... Pop Art caught fire. Having a persona and a theme to be known for is one road to success. My friend David was a prof at Richmond VA University... he painted bull frogs and lily pads over and over, no two the same. It was a cash cow...

"On July 9, 1962, a little-known artist named Andy Warhol opened a small show at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. His head-scratching subject: Campbell's Soup. Each of his 32 paintings portrayed a different flavor in the lineup, from Tomato to Pepper Pot and Cream of Celery."
https://www.history.com/news/andy-warhol-1962-soup-can-paintings-meaning-reaction

NJFrank Loc: New Jersey

Very cool. Sometimes simple is better. My only criticism, what no $100.00 bill.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Thank you for looking in NJFrank,

Yep no $100s.. I recall when in high school there was penny candy, bottled soda was 5 cents... My first professional job as a chemist, 1959. was $2 an hour, but you lived fine on that with 15 cent burgers and a loaf of bread was 25 cents, gasoline was 5 gallons for a dollar.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Clever creativity, Don. Thanks for the bits about Andy too

veralisa296 Loc: New Jersey

You, sir, are a font of wisdom and knowlege. I studied Warhol in school and don't recall any of what you shared here. Of course it's been MANY years since school! Anyway, I do like the way you've combined colors in the base of the can on the table. The $$$ was an inspired touch, also. Your creativity is "right on"!

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Veralisa, you used the word creativity... thank you, but this photo is only a creative joke about Warhol's creative joke that happened to make money that fed him, a starving artist, and made him famous.

I created this photo based on reading about Warhol and deciding on conceptual art photo to express that simplistic laughable can of soup we have all seen so many times. Warhol's perhaps physical hunger being poor in NYC and having his last can of soup decided to laugh at his fate and paint his friend, the soup. Perhaps painting the first can was a joke for him and friends to sip wine and laugh at the desperation of a 'starving-artist.' Warhol had the last laugh he became Woody Alan with a paint brush.

In summary Veralisa, I asked myself how can I make a statement about all the money Warhol made with his joke. My answer, perhaps with a joke about Warhol's Joke, plagiarizing the empty can adding some money. Next time you make a joke, listen. During my life I have walked over many money making opportunities and failed at the "art of seeing." [The Art of Seeing ... Best of ReutersnNews Photos compiled by Ulli Michel... I bought it from Betterworldbooks for perhaps five dollars.]

In reading about one of my visual idles, Warhol, my unconscious connected his can with money that allowed him to purchase other flavors of soup. How could I express this money object concept that? Concept art is art that is conceived then executed in a way to make a message. Message Art is advertising; look it is everywhere.

"In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. The sculpture artist must plan ahead and uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The sculpture can not paint over a mistake, planning is essentual. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art." Conceptual art, for some people,isn’t art at all ... Don you contrived this Warhol Photo and just took a photo of "Tinker Toy Art." This photo follows the rules of photo lay out that I learned from reading Suler's writings.

Suler, J. (2013). Conceptual Photography. In the 4th edition of Richard Zakia’s Perception and Imaging, Focal Press (Elsevier), Oxford, pp. 102-114. Suler Check out his collective works at:
https://johnsuler.com/

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Suler is a professor of psychology and is focused on the psychology of interpretation of the image and placement in the photo... the photo constructs we as photo-artists must follow because we in the western world all are pre-programmed to read images in a pre-programmed way. Free-will is a frivolous concept, we are trains heading down the track and we only make decisions as to which already there track to take... pre-programmed since birth.
https://www.academia.edu/12424755/Conceptual_Photography
Regarding Free-Will:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2398369-why-free-will-doesnt-exist-according-to-robert-sapolsky/

magnetoman Loc: Purbeck, Dorset, UK

It’s a simple but very effective image Don, and very nicely done. You should show us more of your work.
I’m not sure I agree with all the quotes you explain to us here, in particular that the concept of a work requires completely sorting at the beginning of setting out to produce it. I bet there have been quite a few sculptures that went awry and were changed to accommodate that! Within our little section of UHH, where us aged but blossoming concept artists live, we hear time and again that the artist didn’t know where the subject was going when they started the journey - but the end result can be pleasing to both them and us as viewers. Or maybe it is just that we don’t realise that we are starting a particular journey at a particular time? An example, I started a composite to show a knight in armour slaying a spider - but ended up with a spirit lady floating through a galaxy. The original elements are in the same file as the spirit so I’ve transferred them to a new file and tucked them away until inspiration kicks in again and a suitable setting springs to mind. How was I lead astray like that? It was whilst conjuring a background. Perhaps I should prepare each element - rather than creating on the hoof?

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

magnetoman said in part: "artist didn’t know where the subject was going when they started the journey - but the end result can be pleasing to both them and us as viewers. Or maybe it is just that we don’t realize that we are starting a particular journey at a particular time? An example, I started a composite to show a knight in armour slaying a spider - but ended up with a spirit lady floating through a galaxy."

Yes, we the person who is the surface one... does not know but there may be a in the closet artist who takes over and does the art work knowing what it sees as the paint is put on the canvas. Canvas being any media, unconscious is the director.

In the creative past I have described myself as a Dr Frankenstein Construct. Within me there are many. Importantly we, know, cooperate and help one another. When in industrial development, I would be working on one project at my job there were other projects sanctimoniously being worked on by my other selves. I would hear the voice tell me and write down the information it told me about the solution to a task.

One of the voices that takes over my being is the poet. When the poem is over being recited, I do not recall it, but if a good lady is with me she will have made notes about it and help me create what the poet said. The poet fills boredom periods like long driving trips.

The human mind is a complex multi channeled computer... unfortunately, we are trained to not hear the chorus. We are told "focus on what you are doing, don't let your mind wander."

magnetoman Loc: Purbeck, Dorset, UK

Ah yeah, that’s the problem, my mind wandering!

ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

Imaginative and well thought out. I especially like the "mint" background.
Erich