Armand Bartos Fine Art is pleased to present Warhol Soup, the first exhibition to focus solely on Andy Warhol’s Soup Can works, and his transformation of the Campbell’s Soup brand into an American icon. This survey showcases Warhol’s three decades of art making, and brings to light the significance of this recurring image throughout his career. This presentation of paintings, sculpture and prints by the renowned Pop artist will be the gallery’s final exhibition before closing its doors to the public. Armand Bartos will continue to sell works privately.

“Andy’s Soup Can is the single most iconic work of art in the 20th Century and stands apart from other Pop works of the era,” says Armand Bartos, founder of Armand Bartos Fine Art. “The development of these images parallels both the history of art and the greater culture, in that—like many of the great Pop works of the Sixties—its underlying power lies in the ability of the subject matter to both tap into and critique the rise of consumer culture.”

Highlights from the Exhibition

• Campbell’s Soup Can (Chicken with Rice), 1966 – a rare, cast-aluminum replica of a Soup Can from an edition of ten published by Ben Birillo and Leo Castelli • Campbell’s Soup I, 1969 – a series of ten Soup Can prints, which became the most widely reproduced of Warhol’s work • Colored Campbell’s Soup Can (Double Exposure), 1971 – a Factory Polaroid of a Colored Campbell’s Soup Can, with a haunting double exposure, taken in London at the time of his Tate Gallery exhibition • Campbell’s Tomato Soup (Red), 1985 – a late painting where Warhol re-interprets his 1960’s Soup Can painting • Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup Box, 1986 – from his late series which immortalized a then new line of Campbell’s brand soup boxes

Andy Warhol and the Campbell’s Soup Image

…If only I had stayed with doing the Campbell’s Soup well, because everybody only does one painting anyway. Doing it whenever you need money is a really good idea, just that one painting over and over again, which is what everybody remembers you for anyway. – Andy Warhol from “An Interview with Andy Warhol,” Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, 1985

In 1962 Warhol, who begins his career as a commercial illustrator, paints his first pop paintings of Campbell’s Soup and has his first fine art exhibit at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. The Ferus exhibition features 32 individual, identically sized canvases (20” x 16”) of each of the flavor varieties in the Campbell’s lineup. In 1964, Warhol is commissioned by the Campbell’s Soup Company to create a 3 by 2 foot painting similar to his 1962 Tomato version. Warhol creates both the Large Campbell’s Soup Cans, using the traditional Campbell’s colors, and the Colored Campbell’s Soup Cans of 1965, which are very experimental in hue and combinations of color. He rounds out his Campbell’s production of the Sixties working with publishers on a number of multiples and prints. In 1966 he works with Ben Birillo and Leo Castelli on a multiple of a life-sized aluminum cast, Campbell’s Soup Can (Chicken with Rice, and in 1968 and 1969 he produces two print portfolios including ten varieties each from the Campbell’s Soup cupboard. In 1979-1980, Warhol includes the Campbell’s image in the Retrospective and Reversal series.

Warhol returns to Campbell’s in 1985 reinterpreting the Soup Cans from the 1960’s with paintings that are identical in format and size (20×16”). In 1986 he creates the Campbell’s Soup Box paintings. In keeping with the handmade nature of many of his late works, the screens for the canvases are derived from line drawings Warhol made of the recently launched line of boxed soups. They are colored in a loose interpretive style, some of which are brandished with an enlarged painterly treatment of the Campbell’s logo. In February 1987 Warhol dies from complications following a routine gallbladder surgery.

Armand Bartos Fine Art

Armand Bartos, a private dealer for the past 30 years, opened his public gallery on the Upper East Side in May of 2008. His goal was to present a number of museum quality exhibitions, on an intimate scale, exploring art historical ideas that had not been addressed by commercial galleries or museums. This unique exhibition program included:

• SIGN/AGE (Fall 2008-Spring 2009), comprising three separate exhibitions exploring the influence of words, commercial signs and logos in the art world during the second half of the 20th Century o Signs Signs Everywhere a Sign – art that documents the role of advertising in contemporary society o Lost in the Super Market – art that utilizes consumer brand images o Fight the Power – art that addresses politically and culturally charged ideas • 1968-69: 40 Years Later (Spring 2009), a view of the prevalent trends in the art world in the late Sixties • RIP-OFF: Between Appropriation and the Appropriated (Fall 2009), a show featuring works of appropriation hung side by side with the original art • Knock Knock: Who’s There? That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore (Spring 2010), a dual-venue show, with Fred Torres Collaborations, about the history of humor in art • SERIALITY: Sol LeWitt and Allan McCollum (Fall 2010) which explores the idea of serial work as exemplified by Sol LeWitt and Allan McCollum

Armand Bartos will continue to sell art privately, and to organize exhibitions on an occasional basis. He deals primarily in 20th century American and European art, with an emphasis on Minimalism, early Pop and Abstract Expressionism.