Details

Title

Coca-Cola Bottle, #38,348

Artist/Maker

Howard Finster (American, 1916–2001)

Date

1995

Medium

Paint on prefabricated plastic bottle

Dimensions

65 1/2 x 22 x 22 inches

Credit

T. Marshall Hahn Collection

Accession #

1996.175

Location

Currently not on view

This outsized Coca-Cola bottle belongs to a family of images depicting Finster's favorite drink. Finster divided the composition into three registers corresponding to the bottle's structural divisions, unifying the top and bottom portions by painting their backgrounds the same color. A host of Finster's familiar multihued angels accompanied by stars and spaceships in silver and bright tones circles the upper section. Paths leading around and up the bottle toward Heaven weave together the lower sections, which depict earthly realms. The cars that share the roadways with people and animals symbolize the danger of worldly thrills.