Analysis of Andy Warhol’s Coke Bottles

Analysis of Andy Warhol’s Coke Bottles

Andy Warhol (1928?-1987) was my natural choice when I wanted to look

into packaging. He was finely tuned to the tedium of modern

mass-culture, conveying and indeed revelling in the banality of the

images proliferating around him: for example Campbell's Soup Cans

(Chicken with Rice, Beans with Bacon) (1962), Liz (1964) and Brillo

Box (Soap Pads) (1964).

He is probably the most famous member of the Pop Art movement.

Virtually any image that was in the public domain was a prime target

for the Warhol treatment.

I, consequently, had a plethora of work from this artist. I wanted to

carry Coca-Cola’s prominence from my last piece of work into this one.

That is why I want to concentrate on Warhol’s fascination with the

Coca-Cola Contour bottle.

I want to create a piece of work reminiscent to Warhol’s Coca-Cola

silkscreen prints such as 210 Coke Bottles (1962) and Three

Coca-Cola/Coke Bottles (1962). Yet, I also want to incorporate his

style from earlier works (that won him a Carnegie Gold Medal), which

use the blotted line technique that employs watercolour and gold leaf.

These two mediums as well as silkscreen printing appeal to me very

much; thus, this would help me create a work that transcends his

career and the techniques he used while concentrating on the theme of

Coca-Cola.

The Coca-Cola bottle was the idea of Benjamin F. Thomas who thought

that Coca-Cola, a new and fast growing beverage should have an

idiosyncratic bottle. Thus, he wrote a short brief about this

proposal, which was read by Alexander Samuelsson, a Swedish innovator

whose passion was working with glass.

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...ther they are images purloined from

mass-culture or depictions of atrocities such as car crashes. Warhol

raised monotony to new heights, as he said at the time, "I like boring

things".

Warhol always said that “If you want to know all about Andy Warhol,

just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I

am. There's nothing behind it.” I find that quite sad and actually

quite depressing but I feel there is more to Warhol than he says; he

calls himself “very superficial”, but artworks such as Tuna Fish

Disaster (1963) and Electric Chair (1971) show a much darker, eerie

mindset. The use of fresh, fluorescent colours such as hot pinks and

acid blues tinting pictures of electric chairs or car crashes (many

times repeated) really puts Warhol as one of the most important

artists of the 20th century.