On July 9, 1962, a little-known artist named Andy Warhol opened a small show at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. His head-scratching subject: Campbell’s Soup. Each of his 32 paintings portrayed a different flavor in the lineup, from Tomato to Pepper Pot and Cream of Celery. Pop turned traditional art upside down. Instead of portraits, landscapes, battle scenes or other subjects that experts thought of as “art,” artists like Warhol took images from advertising, comic books and other bits of popular culture—the “pop” in Pop art. They used humor and irony to comment on how mass production and consumerism had come to dominate so much of American life and culture.

Source: History