A local brewery used art from Philly museums on its cans. They didn’t ask permission and don’t want forgiveness.

I was in my local beer distributor recently when I saw my favorite Vincent van Gogh painting — The Postman — plastered on a beer can. I hadn’t started drinking yet, so I knew I wasn’t seeing things, and I was still trying to decide whether to be offended or not when I saw who made it — 2SP Brewing Company.

Now I know we’re lucky enough to have The Postman right here in Philadelphia at the Barnes Foundation because I’ve stood before it in awe several times. Yes, there are multiple portraits van Gogh painted of his friend, postman Joseph Étienne-Roulin, but ours is the best (you can put that in an envelope and lick it, Boston).

I also know the folks at 2SP are local, so local they told me: “We’re not in Delaware County, we’re in Delco.”

The idea of an area brewery using a famous local painting on its cans got me intrigued. Could this be more than just about selling beer? Could it possibly be about culture — and not just the kind made of yeast?

I set out to investigate. I started by buying the beer (for journalism!).

The beer named Letters from Aston IPA (a nod to The Postman and 2SP’s hometown) is one of two releases so far in the brewery’s new Public Domain Series, which features artworks with Philadelphia-area ties that fall within the public domain.

The public domain is material — from fine art to books and songs — whose copyright has expired (if there was one), thus, allowing the general public to use it without restrictions or permission.

While the rules are complicated, generally in the U.S. materials published 95 years or prior are part of the public domain, unless a copyright has been renewed. The Postman is from 1889 and the other beer in the series, After Hours Black & Tan, features Le Bon Bock, Édouard Manet’s 1873 portrait of a jolly beer drinker smoking a pipe, that’s in the collection of Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Since both works are in the public domain, 2SP didn’t have to ask permission and “we don’t have to ask for forgiveness later,” said Mike Contreras, director of sales and marketing.

The inspiration for the series came from a collaboration 2SP did with the John James Audubon Center in Audubon prior to the pandemic.

One evening, Contreras “might have ate something that had my mind going a few different places,” and turned on the National Geographic Channel, which was showing a program about birds. Having grown up in a family that appreciated art — Contreras’ mother is a longtime volunteer with Art Goes to School of Delaware Valley, a nonprofit that brings art appreciation classes to area schools — he thought it’d be cool to feature Audubon’s bird art on 2SP’s cans.

He reached out to the Audubon Center and was told they liked the idea, but first they asked if he’d consider participating in a coalition called Brewers for the Delaware, which advocated for clean water. Contreras agreed, even going so far as to testify before a state democratic subcommittee about banning fracking along the Delaware River basin. It was only later he was told Audubon’s images are in the public domain and he could have used them all along.

But Contreras wasn’t upset. Clean water is important, and the collaboration resulted in one of the prettiest beer cans ever, Circadian IPA, which features a compilation of three Audubon artworks.

They release the Circadian every year since its 2018 debut, and this year it will be included as part of the Public Domain Series, with a party to be held at the Audubon Center on April 25.

As Contreras recently considered how 2SP could stick out on crowded beer shelves, his mind again turned to art.

“I thought it’d be cool to use other famous art that’s part of the public domain. Nobody else is doing it,” he said.

Contreras’ sister, Mazie, a graphic designer at 2SP and a volunteer with Art Goes to School, picked the paintings. It was important to the siblings that the cans also include information about the featured artworks, including where they can be viewed, and about Art Goes to School, which needs volunteers.

“In my humble experience, with being a little bit different among my friends, beer can bring people to the table to experience and talk about things they might otherwise ignore,” Contreras said.

Each can features the name of the painting, the artist, where it’s located, a brief description, and a QR code that leads to a website with more information.

The cans also feature a call-out for art lovers to volunteer with Art Goes to School and a QR code to its website, in case you want to make a good decision while drinking for once.

Karin LaMonaca, Art Goes to School’s newsletter editor, described the 62-year-old nonprofit as “a traveling art museum,” through which volunteers bring reproductions of art from around the world to students in 30 area school districts to help sharpen their visual and interpretation skills.

I asked her if we should be concerned that fine art is now appearing on beer cans.

“You’ve heard of Andy Warhol, with the Campbell’s Soup can, right? He elevated a common everyday item to an art status and mass marketed it. In effect, he opened up a huge market of people who never would have been interested in art by doing that,” LaMonaca said.

While I’ve seen some pieces for the first time in a museum, there are other works I saw for the first time on TV, in books, or on social media, that captivated me so much I sought out the real thing.

Just last year, I kept encountering references to Étant donnés, Marcel Duchamp’s final work, almost as if fate was calling me to it, which is ironic, because when I hear Duchamp I think “urinal” and “art that makes me angry it’s considered art.”

I learned Étant donnés — a tableau that can only be viewed through two eyeholes in a large wooden door — is at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which really perplexed me because I’ve been to the Art Museum countless times and never saw it.

And so on my birthday last year, I took myself to see Étant donnés. I had to ask a few guards for help finding it, but when I did I was stunned. It challenged my conceptions of art and my preconceived notions of the artist. Sure, I’d seen pictures online, but viewing it in person was entirely different.

Perhaps then, if someone sees The Postman or Le Bon Bock for the first time on a beer can and is intrigued enough to go see the real thing, it’s a great use of space. After all, if you don’t know about something, you won’t seek it out.

I had an inkling the Barnes Foundation was cool with 2SP using The Postman because the folks who run their Instagram account commented “Pouring one out for van Gogh,” on the brewery’s post about Letters from Aston.

Deirdre Maher, Barnes spokesperson, said in an e-mailed statement that the museum lets people explore thousands of its works online and allows them to download copyright-free images from its collection.

“We hope this use of The Postman will inspire audiences to come visit the original painting at the Barnes!” she wrote.

From the Art Museum, I spoke with Jennifer Thompson, curator of European art, who said she wasn’t aware that Le Bon Bock — a “crowd favorite” at the museum — was used by 2SP until I reached out.

“That’s one of the interesting things about having works in the public domain, the images are able to be used and it doesn’t require anyone to contact us to do it,” she said. “We often find out through second hand or stumbling upon them through different venues.”

Thompson said while she didn’t know much about 2SP, the subject matter is appropriate and she can appreciate a smaller brewery drawing local connections with artworks.

The Art Museum, too, has used Le Bon Bock on its Instagram account, posting the painting with its subject in an Eagles beanie and Saquon Barkley jersey as the Birds made their way to the Super Bowl this year.

“We have fun with him for the same reason, that it makes people laugh and then it reminds people that the work is in our collection and you can come and see it every day,” Thompson said.

Contreras is still mulling over other art he’d like to use in the series. While it’s housed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., he’s considering a Thomas Eakins painting called The Biglin Brothers Racing, which depicts two men rowing down the Schuylkill. And the Henri Rousseau exhibit at the Barnes that opens in October could provide good fodder for a fall beer.

“Art history is extensive and prolific,” Contreras said. “We’re up for suggestions.”