‘Soup Cans’ Missing From Show

The catalog of “Andy Warhol Retrospective,” opening Saturday at the Museum of Contemporary Art, lists 240 works that visitors can expect to see in the landmark exhibition. It’s not a completely accurate lineup because the catalog went to the printer in early February, before all the loans of artworks had been finalized. Still, one item that is listed and reproduced in the catalog, but nowhere to be seen in the show, has raised pointed questions.

That’s because the work, No. 76, isn’t just any old Warhol--particularly to Los Angeles’ art audience. It’s “Campbell’s Soup Cans,” an iconic suite of 32 paintings that made its debut here in 1962 at the Ferus Gallery, a legendary showcase on La Cienega Boulevard.

Widely considered a pivotal work in contemporary art, the paintings introduced Warhol to Los Angeles early in his career. As the catalog indicates, MOCA hoped to bring them here.

But the Museum of Modern Art in New York--which acquired the paintings in 1996 as a purchase and partial gift of former Ferus Gallery owner Irving Blum and loaned them to the retrospective at its first two stops, Berlin and London--refused to extend the loan to Los Angeles. Instead, the suite will go on view June 29 at MoMA’s new facility in Queens.

Blum, who bought the suite of paintings for $1,000 after showing them at Ferus, said the absence at MOCA is “a blaring omission. To have an exhibition in Los Angeles that celebrates Andy, especially his early work, and not have ‘Campbell’s Soup Cans’ is unconscionable. It makes no sense.”

Jeremy Strick, director of MOCA, said the museum hoped to secure the loan and “made efforts to the end.” Although the catalog might seem to indicate that the New York museum reneged on a promise, that is not the case, he said.

“Certainly we wanted the paintings here, both because they are important within Warhol’s work and they have particular relevance for Warhol’s history in Los Angeles,” he said.

But he does not view the absence as a devastating loss. “Seeing the exhibition whole, I think we have a remarkably complete presentation of Warhol’s work,” Strick said. “We have a number of other ‘Soup Can’ paintings that weren’t in Berlin or London.”

The retrospective, which was organized by the New National Gallery in Berlin, wasn’t intended to travel. But when it moved on to the Tate Modern in London, MOCA’s leaders and friends launched a major effort to bring the show to Los Angeles.

Speaking on behalf of the Museum of Modern Art, Ruth Kaplan, deputy director for marketing and communications, said the loan of “Campbell’s Soup Cans” was initially approved only for the New National Gallery in Berlin and later extended to the Tate Modern. When it came to MOCA, however, she says, MoMA loaned major Warhols that were requested, but “we always signaled that the loan of ‘Campbell’s Soup Cans’ would be unlikely, given the timing of our opening of MoMA QNS. It was always our intention to include it in the inaugural presentation, opening June 29.”

Last fall, when MOCA’s staff was trying to extend loans on enough works to bring the show to Los Angeles, Blum was among those who made inquiries at MoMA about “Campbell’s Soup Cans.”

“Kirk Varnedoe was sympathetic, but he’s gone now,” Blum said of MoMA’s former chief curator of painting and sculpture, who resigned last year and joined the faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. “I also spoke to [MoMA trustee] Aggie Gund, who said it wouldn’t be a problem.” Blum also discussed the matter with MoMA director Glenn D. Lowry.

“I suggested a compromise, to let MOCA show the paintings for a couple weeks, before Queens opens, and then send them back. He thought that was an excellent idea, but it didn’t happen. I don’t know why.”

Strick said that he and his staff hadn’t discussed that possibility with Lowry and his staff.