On Soup Cans and Marilyn Monroe
Christianity, Feminism, and the Challenges of Postmodernism
Jenell Williams
October 1, 1995
Andy Warhol continues to teach and inspire art lovers at the Smithsonian's National Gallery of Art. Though likely not Warhol's intent, the Smithsonian's pairing of two paintings illuminates the tensions between postmodernism, feminism, and the Christian faith. One is titled 32 Soup Cans, not surprisingly composed of thirty-two soup cans-split pea, cheddar cheese, and the rest. The other is Green Marilyn, a purpley-pink image of Marilyn Monroe with green eye shadow and Crayola yellow hair. Four Marilyns, Twenty Marilyns, Green Marilyn-nearly as many Marilyns as soup cans. What is the difference between Marilyn Monroe and a soup can? Warhol creates a powerful portrait of postmodernism in these works. Painting faces and cans in many ways, he suggests an infinite number of equally beautiful interpretations. The value of a person or an object is arbitrary-if you like Marilyn green, why not like her twenty times over? If you don't like her, perhaps you prefer soup. It doesn't really matter. The Postmodern Task
Defining postmodernism is difficult because it is a description of a set of ideas as they are being developed. Whatever it is, however, it comes postmodern, after modernism, and can be at least partially understood in terms of what it follows. It is not the rejection, but the logical conclusion of modern thought. If modernism is characterized by belief in progress, optimism in human nature, and the privileging of scientific explanations of the world, postmodernity reveals the limits of those assumptions. Cultural anthropology has shown the modern world, the presumed apex of progress, to be often more cruel than supposedly barbaric societies. Military and political events undercut belief in human goodness, and philosophers of ...
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