Andy Warhol (American, 1930-1987). "The Souper Dress" ca. 1966-67. The iconic Souper Dress inspired by Andy Warhol's Pop Art. The dress is printed with repeating images of Campbell's soup labels and is labeled, "The Souper Dress - NO CLEANING - NO WASHING - IT'S CAREFREE FIRE RESISTANT UNLESS WASHED OR CLEANED - TO REFRESHEN, PRESS LIGHTLY WITH WARM IRON - 80% CELLULOSE 20% COTTON." According to the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, "the Souper Dress is an icon of the intersection of art, style, and commerce of the 1960s...Warhol, who began his career as a fashion illustrator, had been painting Campbell's soup cans since 1962, and his work inspired the Campbell's company to create this mass-produced dress as a marketing tool that would capitalize on both the publicity generated by the artist's groundbreaking work and the rage for stylish, disposable paper clothing. In pop art the appropriation of advertising icons led to a synthesis of word and image, art and the everyday." Size: 38.25" L x 23.25" W (97.2 cm x 59.1 cm)

Andy Warhol's life as well as his art were focused on consumer culture, celebrity, and mechanical reproduction. Indeed, Warhol was a champion of the Pop Art movement and responded to mass-media culture like his contemporaries Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Roy Lichtenstein. Warhol created masterful silk-screen prints such as his 32 Campbell's Soup Cans (1962), Brillo pad box sculptures, and portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, in characteristic hard edges and a candy-like color palette. "The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do," he once explained. Indeed, Andy Warhol created some of the most iconic images of the 20th century, and this work resonates with his early interests in the world of fashion.

Andy Warhol was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1949 and then moved to New York City to pursue commercial art, working for fashion magazines like Glamour and Vogue. In the 1960s, Warhol rented a studio loft in Midtown Manhattan later known as The Factory. The Factory was a hub for artists, movie stars, and models, who became subjects and inspiration for his prints and films. In addition, the space served as a performance venue for The Velvet Underground. By the 1980s, Warhol was collaborating with rising artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. Following Warhol's death at age 58, due to complications from routine gall bladder surgery, his estate became The Andy Warhol Foundation. In 1994, The Andy Warhol Museum opened in his native Pittsburgh. Today, his works are appreciated throughout the world and may be viewed in major museum collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Tate Gallery in London.

Of note: Andy Warhol's "The Souper Dress" has been collected by major museums such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The De Young Museum, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco; The Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, Denver, CO; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.

Another Souper Dress is currently listed on 1stDibs for $25,000.

Provenance: private Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, USA collection

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#180063

Expected age wear with stains and abrasions as shown. A few very small punctures/tears to body of the dress. A tear below right proper underarm seam. Crease/fold marks. Some fraying and trimming to hemline.