Derivative Art: Andy Warhol and Lawrence Dilka

Andy's Work at MoMA
Lawrence Dilka of Ojo Caliente's work hanging in one of my extra bedrooms
Again.

Needless to say, Rees & I had a great time in NYC. Although the temperatures were arctic, we managed to see quite a few things: a couple of plays, Time Stands Still with Laura Linney, Eric Bogosian, & Christina Ricci and The Importance of Being Ernest, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed, and then the musical Addams Family with Nathan Lane and BeBe Neuwirth, which I did not (a little too campy for my tastes).

Museums occupied quite a bit of my time. I thoroughly enjoyed the Frick Collection, MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Hopper exhibit at the Whitney.

That aside: after looking at Andy Warhol's Campbell soup cans (from wikipedia:

Campbell's Soup Cans,^[1] which is sometimes referred to as 32 Campbell's Soup Cans,^[2] is a work of art produced in 1962 by Andy Warhol. It consists of thirty-two canvases, each measuring 20 inches (510 mm) in height × 16 inches (410 mm) in width and each consisting of a painting of a Campbell's Soup can—one of each of the canned soup varieties the company offered at the time.^[1] The individual paintings were produced with a semi-mechanized silkscreen process, using a non-painterly style. Campbell's Soup Cans' reliance on themes from popular culture helped to usher in pop art as a major art movement in the USA.), I remembered a piece of art Rees & I acquired from a charity auction some years ago in Taso. It is a piece by Lawrence Dilka and derives much from the Warhol piece. In its shadow box wooden case and behind glass, are real cans, with Tomato Soup labels, some faded, some bright--with similar variations of color as the original Warhol piece. Then on the right side are more cans, this time with black and white labels. In each section of the piece is a photo of Andy Warhol in the lower right corner. The piece is quite heavy so I am sure the cans are full--but something makes me wonder if they are actually tomato soups or something completely different.