Golden Mushroom, from Campbell's Soup II

Here is one of Andy Warhol's most recognizable subjects, the humble Campbell's soup can. This particular print comes from his second soup series, made in 1969, several years after his original 1962 paintings that helped launch the Pop Art movement. Warhol famously said he painted soup cans because he ate the soup nearly every day for lunch over a span of twenty years. There was no hidden tragedy or grand meaning, just an everyday object that millions of Americans recognized instantly.

What makes this version a little different is the bright yellow banner cutting across the middle, announcing that the soup is "Great for Gravies and Sauces!" along with the flavor, Golden Mushroom. Warhol used a screenprinting technique that gave the image a flat, mass-produced look, almost like an advertisement rather than a traditional painting. That was exactly the point. By taking something so ordinary and putting it on a gallery wall, he asked people to think about consumer culture, repetition, and what we choose to call art. It is simple, a bit cheeky, and surprisingly hard to forget.