International Fine Arts Consortium - IFAC Arts Art

The artist constructs his spirit animal through mixed media. 48" x 60" Spray Paint, Oil, Construction Paper, Acrylic, Pastel, Marker

Shortly before Walt Esslinger died a few years ago, we talked in his small yellow painted studio in Bakersfield. Sixteen years my senior, he’d been my close friend, mentor and running mate since 1960. “You still writing?” he asked. “Yes,” I answered, taking in the space’s renovations he’d recently sub-contracted. Ninety one years old, and he was thinking ahead. “Do me a favor,” he said. “Write the Andy Warhol story.” Walt was a Central Valley guy, an L.A. guy, a Las Vegas guy. A man who knew his way around. “I want you to put on record what happened back then when I bought the soup can painting.” Back then was the fall of 1962. The two of us had been exhibiting our paintings in the L.A. Art Institute’s gallery for locals only. Walt had given legendary Ad Rhinehardt a story about how he and I had been working in both Edward Kienholz’s and John Altoon’s studios (false—we’d only been visiting). One morning, the Institute’s Director, who hadn’t suspected us to be charlatans yet, introduced us to a reed thin, tow headed young man leaning against the main gallery’s wall. “Meet Andy Warhola,” he said. “Andy is from New York.” “Warhol,” the boy/man said. “Painter?” Walt asked him. “Shoe Illustrator.” The director made a snorting noise I took to mean that Warhola or Warhol’s modesty was posed. He mentioned something about Andy having a show on the La Cienega strip of galleries. We exchanged mumbles about how the art world was in flux, nothing more than that, and Walt and I moved on. If this strange cat had anything to look at, we’d see it. It was a Monday, and La Cienega’s twenty some galleries would be opening new shows and serving champagne that evening. North La Cienega Avenue, laid over a network of oil veins decades before, had become the street for the Cool School, a group of artists and gallery people trying to bring Los Angeles’s art scene to life. The galleries were small but proud. Sure, Jazz was born on the Delta and raised in New Orleans, St, Luis and Chicago, but L.A. had fifty-three jazz joints according to Chet Baker, who’d blown with the best. Why then should the West Coast be lagging behind New York in the other truly American expression, abstract art? At the Ferus Gallery that night we found Warhol’s exhibit. “Shit,” I said. Walt grinned. “You no like?” “Not exactly my can of soup,” I said, peeking into the small space, loaded now wall to wall with paintings of Campbell’s Tomato Soup. Walt stepped into the space. “How about the idea of it?” I made my way through spectators looking at once to be confused, amused, enthused and abused. When I came back to Walt he was still smiling. “Why didn’t he silk screen ‘em?” I asked. “That’s probably his next move,” Walt said. “You wanna stay?” Walt’s keen eyes cased the joint. “I see Irving Bloom over there,” he said. “Believe I’ll stick around and talk with him.” Bloom had been operating this popular gallery for some time now. “One hundred a month,” he’d told me. “It’s not like I’m getting rich.” I stood around for a bit, heard a fellow abstract expressionist I’d met tell a young lady who looked to be lost, “Okay that’s the soup. Come with me, baby, and I’ll show you the juice.” Two doors down I stopped at the Primus-Stuart Gallery. A group of people had gathered around a display of soup cans, stacked grocer’s pyramid style in the window. All Campbell’s. All Tomato. A sign leaning against the grouping stated: “Get the real thing. Thirty cents each.” That’s the way it was. Twenty-four galleries forming a gauntlet between La Cienega’s 300 block, all the way up to Barney’s Beanery at the corner of Santa Monica. Hollywood types dressed to the nines, Beats dressed for the times just gone. Champagne popping...

Mary Jo designs all the neon as a unique piece of artwork. Each piece is hand blown glass and assembled to create a one-of-a-kind piece, which comes completely ready to install. Whit...

Yellowpop, After Andy Warhol Neon light Campbell's Soup Can Wall Display Sign, 2022 Brand new in bespoke box with original packaging bearing Warhol's authorized printed signature with everything included Makes an excellent gift. Acrylic-printed soup can lined with red neon LED artwork with energy-efficient tubing, full board backing Box is plate signed; accompanied by official COA authorized by the Warhol Foundation (Numbered 212 from Edition of 500) 24 1/2 × 14 inches Unframed LIMITED EDITION OF 500. ACCOMPANIED BY A NUMBERED CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY AUTHORIZED BY THE WARHOL FOUNDATION. Turn the ordinary into the extraordinary! This LED neon sign...

DAWID POLONY (born in 1988) Dawid Polony studied at the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow in the studios of graphics (prof. Tomasz Daniec), painting (prof...

ANNA MASIUL-GOZDECKA Graduated from Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts in 2000. She studied painting at prof. Krzysztof Wachowiak`s atelier, photography under the guidance of prof. Rosław S...

Mary Jo designs all the neon as a unique piece of artwork. Each piece is hand blown glass and assembled to create a one-of-a-kind piece, which comes completely ready to install. Whit...

This neon piece is hand blown glass. It is mounted on contoured, clear plexiglas with pre drilled holes for hanging, and comes ready to hang. This piece is offered in the following c...

This neon piece is hand blown glass. It is mounted on contoured, clear plexiglas with pre drilled holes for hanging, and comes ready to hang. This piece is offered in the following c...

Yellowpop after Andy Warhol Neon Flowers lighted Wall Hanging/Sign, 2022 Neon flex material, consisting of PVC or Silicon piping with LED lights mounted on a recycled acrylic board E...

acrylic and collage (painted canvas) on canvas ANNA MASIUL-GOZDECKA Graduated from Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts in 2000. She studied painting at prof. Krzysztof Wachowiak`s atelier, ...

The Dorians played a significant role in the development of the Greek city-states during the Bronze Age -- and Doves are widely recognized as symbols of peace, primarily in the story...