…Andy Warhol at home eating Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Ken Heyman, 1966
I’ll have what Andy Warhol was having, at home with his mother Julia Warhola at breakfast in 1966.
I’m no morning person. Breakfast is typically a rare indulgence, such as when at a hotel on vacation. At the eco-chic hotel Chateu Mcely housed in a castle right smack in the middle of the Saint George Forest in the Czech Republic, breakfast would be a selection of eggs done overeasy, fluffy pancakes, salmon, fresh juices, and caviar in a sun-drenched room overlooking the lawn that slopes down to the Bohemian village below.
But I’ll have what Andy Warhol (b. Aug. 6, 1928/d. Feb. 22, 1987) was having, a bowl of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes with half a cup of milk in it, while his mother fussed over him.
A bowl of cereal was enough to give this legendary pop artist, a key figure in the pop art movement, which emerged in the 1950s and flourished in the 1960s, what he needed to survive each day. But nothing sustained him more than sugar. As he put it, “I’m only kidding myself when I go through the motions of cooking protein. All I ever really want is sugar. The rest is strictly appearances.”
Warhol ate Kellogg’s for breakfast and, for lunch, a sandwich like the Whopper from Burger King or, more likely, a simple bread and jam and Campbell’s tomato soup, which he ate every day for 20 years.
'You know that the president drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke too.'
But there was more to Kellogg’s or Campbell’s in the artistic life of Andy Warhol, who signed his name indelibly in the history of modern art in his creative exploration of consumerist concepts like fast food, canned goods, and processed edibles. He was a realist, but he played around with reality, such everyday realities as dollar bills, Brillo shipping cartons, soup cans, and cereal boxes, through prints, silk-screening, repetitive patterns, and loud, acid colors. He was equally fascinated with advertising and celebrity culture. Hence, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, Elvis I & II, Liz Taylor, or even Mao, perhaps Warhol’s most iconic work next to 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans.
In these consumerist items, he saw incredible opportunities for social commentary. Art critics were intrigued by his fascination with the Coca Cola bottle. “What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same thing as the poorest,” Warhol explained. “You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the president drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke too.”
I’ll have what Andy Warhol was having, a bowl of Kellogg’s cornflakes, perchance the sugar high would lift me up from these doldrums and, like he did, I could find a way to make fun of this world without this world ever knowing I was making fun of it.
Wake me up for Kellogg’s, then I’ll raise a dirty finger to this world and they’ll think it’s art.