The first ever officially licenced, global Pan Am poster artwork collection is the result of a multi-year journey on behalf of Stick No Bills®, meticulous sourcing and remastering original artworks from both private and institutional archives. Our goal? To create the comprehensive collection to represent the enduring spirit and pioneering innovation of the Pan Am brand.
Now we are finding this collection also allows us to champion the unsung heroes of Pan Am’s seminal advertising campaigns, the artists who so successfully created this creative heritage; exporting the ‘American Dream’ while simultaneously instilling a deep desire to travel, and to do so with style.
The collection includes spectacular illustrations from Paul George Lawler, Edward McKnight Kauffer, Jean Carlu, Aaron Amspoker and Aaron Fine; who all worked throughout the 1950’s and into the 60’s to create the enduring appeal of these stunning artworks.
We are focusing today on Aaron Fine because he is the artist behind the two 1/1 differentiated Master Editions of ‘London, Pan American, 1950’s [Red Double Decker]’ that were sold for US$22,000 in a charity auction for the Pan Am Museum Foundation at their annual Gala in New York last week.
Aaron Fine was a renowned American illustrator and graphic artist whose works for Pan Am are among the most valued today, with his distinctive style, colours and compositions that still sing from the page. While we were researching more details of his life, we came across a throwaway line referring to Fine as ‘a close friend of Andy Warhol’.
Further digging revealed this relationship may be a lot more significant, potentially even pivotal, in shaping the trajectory of 20th-century art.
We unearthed a screenplay titled “Shower” by Ronald Tavel, the screenwriter, director, novelist, poet and actor, who is best known for his work with Warhol, The Factory and who co-created The Theatre of the Ridiculous. The never-filmed script was meant to be a vehicle for their mutual friend Edie Sedgwick, and in it he includes type-written notes describing the time preceding the writing of the unsuccessful script, when Andy Warhol first started working with Campbell’s soup cans:
When a friend of Andy’s, Aaron Fine, dying of cancer in 1962, inquired why he chose to depict the Campbell’s soup can, Andy answered: – “I wanted to paint nothing. I was looking for something that was the essence of nothing, and that was it.”
In other sources, we have found other quotes where it is also Fine who asked Warhol about the very beginning of his Pop Art, with his Dada-esque response of: “It’s the synthesis of nothingness.” Clearly, Fine was there and he was important at this key moment of Warhol’s artistic development.
Like Fine, Warhol had also worked as a commercial artist throughout the fifties, but was leaving this world behind. While Warhol had his first solo show in New York City in 1952, and was included in a group show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1956, it was after he began silk screen printing in the early 60’s that he really took off. His Big Campbell's Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable) was featured in Time magazine in May, 1962, and then in July, his exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles featuring his Campbell’s Soup Cans marked the debut of Pop Art. Warhol changed the art world forever. His friend Aaron Fine never lived this, tragically, he died from cancer in September 1962.
Were they closer than we know? Was the effect of this loss part of what took Warhol to explore the artistic mundanity of everyday objects and thus to the iconic Campbell soup can?
There are many unanswered questions.
What we can do today – and are extremely proud to – is celebrate the work of Aaron Fine for Pan Am, now beautifully remastered and, using contemporary technology, inks and paper, can be enjoyed and preserved for generations to come.
While there are no more Master Editions of Pan Am’s ‘London, Pan American, 1950’s [Red Double Decker]’ by Aaron Fine, there are other Museum Limited Editions of this work available in different sizes.
And there are other 1/1 24 karat gold-embossed Master Editions of other Aaron Fine-created works in the Stick No Bills® Pan Am Collection. After the excitement of the charity auction at the weekend and with this new revelation about Aaron Fine’s influence on Andy Warhol, these are about to become modern-day classics. If you are interested in investing in one of these exclusive artworks, please contact us at: info@sticknobillsonline.com
All artworks have been remastered on behalf of Pan American Airways, LLC., exclusively for Stick No Bills® with certified distribution worldwide under authorisation. ©Pan American World Airways, LLC.
