Company special: Coca-Cola celebrates iconic bottle's centenary year

A visitor poses for picture in front of Andy Warhol's famous black-and-white Coca-Cola bottle painting.[Photo/China Daily]

A traveling art exhibition, called The Coca-Cola Bottle Art Tour: Inspiring Pop Culture for 100 Years, will visit more than 15 countries around the world in 2015.

The exhibition promises to take audiences on a multisensory journey featuring a variety of themed artworks, historical artifacts and interactive experiences that show case the role of the Coca-Cola bottle in art and popular culture.

Artists including Howard Finster, Tom Wesselmann, Ulrich Walter and Carlos Vergara have featured Coca-Cola's iconic bottle in their work.

Steve Penley, an American artist who was designated as the official artist for the G8 summit in 2004, completed a series of oil paintings themed around the fizzy drink.

The Coca-Cola Company, in partnership with French publishing house Assouline, is releasing a limited-edition book highlighting the history of the Coca-Cola bottle, titled Kiss the Past Hello.

The company invited contemporary artists and designers from around the world to reinterpret the bottle in their own signature styles for works to include in the book, which is due to be released this month.

The Coca-Cola bottle is closely linked to cultural experiences shared across generations for the past 100 years.

This year's celebrations also include digital campaigns featuring iconic celebrities, such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Ray Charles who were 'kissed by' the Coca-Cola bottle.

In one image, the King of Rock n' Roll Elvis Presley is shown enjoying a Coca-Cola between takes at RCA Victor's Studio 1 in New York City.