I am going through a phase where I love everything inspired by Pop Art and the masters, especially Andy Warhol.
A couple of years ago I received a Loop NYC Andy Warhol Campbells Soup canvas tote bag as a gift. I think just the novelty of this bag is what Warhol himself was trying to capture in his artwork.
The bag came with a strip of photo booth portraits that Warhol took of himself, mini canvas soup cans that fasten with safety pins onto the tote, and a soup can coin purse. Also included was a copy of a rejection letter (below) that Warhol received from The Museum of Modern Art after he offered to donate them a piece of his work in 1956.
Surely Warhol would have seen the humor in his likeness and his rendering of the Campbells Soup can becoming an ubiquitous fashion.
For your reading pleasure, here’s what the letter says:
Last week our Committee on the Museum Collections held its first meeting of the fall season and had a chance to study your drawing entitled Shoe which you so generously offered as a gift to the museum.
I regret that I must report to you that the Committee decided, after careful consideration, that they ought not to accept it for our Collection.
Let me explain that because of our severly limited gallery and storage space we must turn down many gifts offered, since we feel it is not fair to accept as a gift a work which may be shown only infrequently.
Nevertheless, the Committee has asked me to pass on to you their thanks for your generous expression of interest in our Collection.
Sincerely,
Alfred H. Barr Jr.
Director of the Museums CollectionsP.S. The Drawing may be picked up from the Museum at your convenience.
After reading this cordial, but obvious rejection letter, all I could say was OUCH — but Andy sure did bounce back.
