Jenny's Noodle

Although he's been gone for some time, Andy Warhol's "15 minutes of fame" still haven't run out. Today would have been the pop artist icon's 82nd birthday and tributes are popping up all over the internet.

(I particularly enjoyed Flavorwire's 82 Things You Didn't Know About Andy Warhol. For example, did you know Warhol's favorite thing to buy was underwear?!)

One bit of Warhol nostalgia caught my eye—a letter written back in 1964 by Campbell's Soup Company Product Marketing Manager, William P. MacFarland. Copyright legalities aside, MacFarland seems to be a genuine fan of Warhol's work, going so far as to offer to send a "couple of cases" of Tomato Soup to the artist. And, it seems, MacFarland shamelessly tried to solicit a free/discounted work of art for himself.

Here is a copy of the letter in full:

Photo via Letters of Note

The inspiration for Warhol's use of Campbell's Soup cans as a subject is highly debated. Friends, dealers, former lovers, and others have offered theories, but perhaps the most compelling explanation came from the artist himself:

Journalist David Yarritu: "I heard that your mother used to make these little tin flowers and sell them to help support you in the early days."

Andy Warhol: "Oh God, yes, it's true, the tin flowers were made out of those fruit cans, that's the reason why I did my first tin-can paintings...You take a tin-can, the bigger the tin-can the better, like the family size ones that peach halves come in, and I think you cut them with scissors. It's very easy and you just make flowers out of them. My mother always had lots of cans around, including the soup cans."

Read The Origins of Andy Warhol's Soup Cans or The Synthesis of Nothingness here