Andy Warhol, “Campbell’s Soup Can”

Richard Pettibone
Andy Warhol, “Campbell’s Soup Can”
Acrylic on canvas, 1962, 1967
6 3/4 x 5 inches
Gift of Diana Zlotnick, Los Angeles, California
1991.224

Two years after seeing Warhol’s soup can paintings at Ferus, Richard Pettibone made his first “copies”—tiny, carefully crafted miniatures of Campbell Soup Can (Pepper Pot). One was green, the other gray. Each were rubber stamped with Warhol’s name and with his own. Within a few years, he had created other miniature copies of Warhol’s works and added tiny replicas of works by Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, and Frank Stella. In some instances, he would combine several pieces into a larger work. Pettibone applied his skill as a model maker—a talent he acquired from making model trains during his childhood—by creating miniature stretcher bars for each piece, which were carefully assembled with little nails.