May 10: Campbell's Soup Cans

   Campbell's Soup Cans is the title of a work of art produced in 1962 by
   Andy Warhol (pictured).  It consists of thirty-two canvases, each
   measuring 20 inches in height x 16 inches in width (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
   and each consisting of a painting of a Campbell's Soup can—one of each
   of the canned soup varieties the company offered at the time.  The
   individual paintings were produced with a semi-mechanised silkscreen
   process, using a non-painterly style.  Campbell's Soup Cans' reliance
   on themes from popular culture helped to usher in pop art as a major
   art movement.  For Warhol, a commercial illustrator who became a
   successful author, painter and film director, the work was his first
   one-man gallery exhibition as a fine artist.  This exhibition marked
   the West Coast debut of pop art.  The combination of the
   semi-mechanized process, the non-painterly style, and the commercial
   subject initially caused offense, as the work's blatantly mundane
   commercialism represented a direct affront to the technique and
   philosophy of abstract expressionism.  The public commotion helped
   transition Warhol from being an accomplished 1950s commercial
   illustrator to a notable fine artist, and it helped distinguish him
   from other rising pop artists.

Read the rest of this article:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell%27s_Soup_Cans


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Today's selected anniversaries:

1503:
   Christopher Columbus and his crew became the first Europeans to visit
   the Cayman Islands.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cayman_Islands)

1857:
   The Sepoy Rebellion broke out in colonial India, threatening the rule
   of the British East India Company.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Rebellion_of_1857)

1869:
   The First Transcontinental Railroad of North America was completed
   with a golden spike ceremony.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Transcontinental_Railroad)

1924:
   J. Edgar Hoover became director of the U.S. Bureau of Investigation.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover)

1940:
   Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of the United Kingdom resigned and
   formally recommended Winston Churchill as his successor.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Chamberlain)
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill)


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Wikiquote of the day:

   Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who
   think.  -- Jean de La Bruyère
   (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean_de_La_Bruy%C3%A8re)