Who Knew Soup Cans Could Be So Fashionable?

by

Mackenzie Patel

Clam Chowder. Beef. Cheddar Cheese. While these mundane food items might taste as delicious as a cherry popsicle on a hot Florida evening, they wouldn’t make the most fashionable (or sane) foot candy. However, that is precisely what the grunge chic brand Converse has done to spice up their iconic footwear that combines edginess with style. Taking a leaf out of the Nars Makeup book (which created a whole collection based off Andy Warhol and his legacy as a shallow egotist), this shoe giant is leaping into the art world to bring culture to its customers. Prints of Warhol’s famous Soup Can silkscreened images have been stamped into the canvas of Converse shoes, coloring the usually monochromatic fabric with tomato, black bean, and mushroom soup representations. It is truly heightened pop culture on steroids–a substance Warhol would have been more than happy to inject hourly. Obsessed with fame, mortality, and his own image to the world, I can imagine how pleased he would be knowing that his fabricated and commercialized art was being sold to millions of consumers who barely knew any art history. What is the work Velázquez, Cezanne, and Rubens compared to tin food sold at Publix?

Before you scamper off to pay $70.00 for shoes simply because they look hipster and cool, take a moment to learn the back story behind the infamous cans and their even more mysterious painter. Andy Warhola (yes, he dropped the oh-so-conspicuous ‘a’ during stardom) was born in 1928 to Slovakian parents who immigrated to Pittsburg.  He was always a sickly child growing up, wiling away the endless hours in his bed by drawing and doodling. He attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology for pictorial design, and eventually moved to the bustling and glamorous NYC to be become an artist. He eventually had works (i.e. the Brillo Boxes, Flowers) exhibited in the Leo Castelli Gallery and the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris and made longwinded (and often sexual) films and photographs of himself and his elitist friends. Because he was obsessed with fame and stardom, Warhol usually had celebrities featured in his films (i.e. Jane Holzer); he believed they were beautiful whereas he was obviously not. He was commissioned by movie stars to complete the typical “Warhol” portrait, which was a silkscreen image with garish colors and broad outlines. The turning point in Warhol’s life when he was shot by Valeria Solanas, a radical feminist, in 1968. From there, his art turned cold, morbid, and chilling (i.e. his skulls and electric chair series). He died in 1987 following complications after a gallbladder surgery.

The Campbell soup cans hit the art world in 1961, and they would undoubtedly shore up Warhol’s legacy of pop art, materialism, and consumerism. Imagine taking everyday objects, painting them realistically in a series, and becoming famous off of them! It was so revolutionarily mundane that the Cans were exhibited at the Ferus Gallery in July of 1962. His silkscreens hang in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City today, alongside iconic images such as his golden Marilyn Monroe. This quote from the Wikipedia page on the Soup Cans perfectly sums up the momentousness of this new pop art style: “Instead of harmonious three-dimensional arrangements of objects, he chose mechanical derivatives of commercial illustration with an emphasis on the packaging.” Besides soup cans, Warhol silkscreened monotonous images of dollar bills, cows, Jackie Kennedy after the infamous death of her husband, Brillo boxes, macabre car crashes, and the Mona Lisa. On one hand, I love Warhol because he turns rather uninteresting objects into greats works of art worthy of a first rate museum; on the other, I disdain his work because it’s often unoriginal, garish, and nothing I’d care to hang in my house. I am a classical, Renaissance, Roman, and Baroque girl to the hilt, meaning that the flare of modern art does not suit me well. However, the one Warhol image that I am enamored with is Debbie Harry in the black and white version. The edgy lead singer of Blondie has impeccable, dramatic hair, a haunting and introspective glare, and fierce red lips that leap off the canvas with confidence and swagger. This painting was part of the “Warhol: Art. Fame. Mortality.” that was shown at the Dali Museum last February. Find out more about the rocking exhibition (literally, on the night of the opening party, Rolling Stones and The Velvet Underground were blasting throughout the gallery) here.

 

So is the money for the mass produced shoes manufactured in Asia with Warhol images stuck to the front worth it? If you are a cult follower of Warhol and understand the reason for his entire being ($$$$ and fame), then absolutely yes. Check out the Warhol Converse page here. Read my book review on Andy Warhol by Isabel Kuhl here!