Roy Lichtenstein Pop Artist October 27, 1923 - September 29

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Roy Lichtenstein

• Pop Artist
• October 27, 1923 - September 29, 1997

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Roy Lichtenstein in pairs what can you
remember from the video?

• Source of imagery
• Aims / ideas
• Reaction from others-
• Comic books
• 1951 1953

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Roy Lichtenstein

• Source of imagery commercial art (war, romance
  comics, cartoons), later high art (e.g. Picasso,
  Mondrian, Monet, Ab-Ex artists)
• He owes his style to comics but not his themes.
• Aims of Lichtensteins art
• To explore stereotypes found in popular culture
• To reflect the commercialisation of culture to
  bring our attention to how mass media represents
  our world
• To continue to redefine / question what art is.
  He does this by
• ?Producing intentionally depersonalised art he
  cleans away the record of his hand.
• Using subjects that are deliberately banal and
  clichéd
• disorientating viewers making them look with
  fresh eyes at popular culture. By taking one
  frame out of a comic strip, enlarging it, putting
  it in a gallery, we dont read it as part of the
  story. Familiar scenes take on a new meaning.
• Reaction in the early 60s, SHOCK - to see comic
  book images on gallery walls.
• Some cartoonists felt AFFRONTED by his
  appropriation of their work
• Some in the art world were OUTRAGED he copied
  masterpieces of famous artists.

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Look Mickey 1961

• Oil on canvas
• 121 x 175 cm
• Landmark painting that began borrowing popular
  imagery
• Chewing gum wrapper
• Cliched Scene reduced to a sign that we read
  instantly (Pop!)

In this work, Lichtenstein establishes basic
elements of his STYLE discuss what they are.
Consider colour, treatment of form, line,
composition. Lichtenstein sees his use of low
subjects as part of an art historical tradition
of gradual vulgarising what does he mean by
this?
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Girl with Ball 1961

• Source a holiday resort advertisement in NY
  Times
• Subject Comics tend to trivialise or generalize
  emotions by depicting cliched scenes. What is
  the clichéd emotion in this work?
• Form How did Lichtenstein alter this image?
  Why did he alter it?
• What is the effect?
• Composition comment on the use of figure /
  ground (negative space)

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Lichtenstein on altering the original source
images

• What I do is form, whereas the comic strip is
  not formed Comics have shapes but there has been
  no effort to make them intensely unified. The
  purpose is different, one intends to depict and I
  intend to unify. My work is different from comic
  strips in that every mark is really in a
  different place, however how slight the
  difference seems to some. The difference is
  often not great, but it is crucial.
• Read the other quotations on your sheet
  discuss.
• HE CHANGES ORIGINAL IMAGES BY
• -- exaggerating the scale --- altering proximity
  of forms -- omitting distracting details

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Lichtensteins art training

• At Ohio State University his professor (HL
  Sherman) used a technique he called The Flash
  Lab showing images of flat images on a
  projection sheet for a fraction of a second, then
  got the students to draw what they had seen as
  a way of sharpening their visual recognition in
  seeing whole images, and helping student
  appreciate the importance of negative space.
• This would have a huge influence on
  Lichtensteins art.

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ECONOMIC CONTEXT the influence of
industrialization

• Everybody has called Pop Art American
  painting, but its actually industrial painting.
  America was hit by industrialism harder and
  sooner and its values seem more askew
  Lichtenstein
• Also see Quotation 4

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Masterpiece 1962

• STYLE
• Note down 4-5 typical characteristics of COMIC
  STRIPS also used by the artist.
• THEME
• - Where is the humour / irony in this work?
• - What stereotypes or clichés is Lichtenstein
  exploring?

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LICHTENSTEINS STYLE

• FORM is simplified, precise and hard edged.
  Uses large FLAT areas of primary COLOURS (red,
  yellow, blue, black and white) and Benday dots
  to mimic mechanical production methods used in
  comic books.
• LINE Black outlines encase forms another
  comic book convention.
• Very unified classical COMPOSITION. Elements
  close together in a square frame
• Use of SPEECH BALLOONS, capitalised dialogue with
  key words in BOLD

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In the Car 1963

• Source what type of comic has this come from?
• Form How has Lichtenstein used LINE in this
  work? What different meanings do we read from
  parallel lines when looking at a comic book?
• Composition how has it been unified?

Magna colour on board,172.7 x 203.2 cm. Scottish
National Gallery
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Whaam! 1963 (Tate Gallery)

• Subject Why was Lichtenstein interested in war
  comics?
• Composition What is the effect of isolating
  these two frames? Comment on how your eye is led
  in the work.
• Form What comic book conventions are used ?
  What effect does that have on the meaning/theme
  of the work?

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Lichtensteins sculpture

• Explosion II, 1965, porcelain enamel on steel,
  88x60in.
• Lamp 1, 1978. What do these two sculptures
  humorously highlight?

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Lichtensteins male protagonists

• What stereotypes / social commentary can you find
  these works?

Torpedo Los! Magna on Canvas 1963 172.7 x 203.2
cm
MR BELLAMY, 1961
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Hopeless 1964

• What are the gender stereotypes presented here?
• What cliched narrative is suggested?
• Where might these melodramatic scenes come from?

Composition is similar in each work comment on
how the elements are unifed Iconography identify
a commonsymbol its meaning in these works
Drowning Girl 1963
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Lichtensteins innovative technique Benday dots
Ironically Lichtenstein paints, by hand, in a way
that LOOKS as if the work has been made by a
machine. He was also interested in how Commercial
artists talk of 50 red colour is not used to
express emotion/taste. His use of Benday dots
emphasises the ARTIFICIALITY and CONSTRUCTEDNESS
in much popular culture. It also makes us
question why certain marks or art styles are
given higher status than others.

• Close up from Drowning Girl. Can you recall the
  process Lichtenstein uses? Tell your partner.

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Woman with Flowered Hat 1963

• What has Lichtenstein used as a source here?
• What is the significance of this?
• What is the effect of Lichtensteins image?

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Woman with Flowered Hat

• Lichtenstein shows that anything can be art.
  Even a copy of a famous masterpiece in the
  style of a cheap reproduction (photo lithography
  printing).
• He removes all traces of expression/originality
• Copied from a postcard, so it is a copy of a copy
• Idea that the reproduction was more real than the
  original
• Artworks public property now that all have
  access to them. This is a kind of levelling
  makes art more democratic.

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Rouen Cathedral 1969Oil Magna on canvas (63x42
in) SFMOMALeft Monets Rouen Cathedral in
Full Sunlight 1893Monet painted a series of
paintings of this church at different times of
the day to record various impressions of light
and atmosphere.In what ways does Lichtensteins
paintings provide an ironic commentary on these
art works?
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Brush stroke series

• Yellow and Green Brushstrokes, 1966. 213 x
  457cm Oil and magna on canvas
• Parodies Abstract Expressionist idea of
  originality / personal mark of the artist by
  rendering the brushstroke in a flattened,
  stylized comic form
• Heroic/sublime is transformed to something
  trivial, general

Brushstroke sculpture, Reina Sofia museum, Madrid.
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Additional sources

• http//www.flickr.com/photos/deconstructing-roy-li
  chtenstein/page7/
• Compilation of original advertisements and comics
  used by Lichtenstein

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Style comparison question

• Compare Warhols work
• Jacqueline Kennedy (Jackie III) II.15,
  1966Screenprint on Paper, 40" x 30" To
  Lichtensteins Drowning Girl, 1963 Oil and
  synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 67 x 66"

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3.1 STYLE QUESTION

• (i) Identify three key stylistic differences
  between these two paintings
• (ii) Explain the reasons for the differences
  between the two paintings by relating them to
  each the aims, interests and methods of each
  artist and those of Pop artists in general.

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Set up your answer like this

• Brief intro name 2 works and 3 main areas of
  difference
• Para 1 The first main difference is(For A)
• Para 2 The second difference is(For A)
• Para 3 Thirdly, the works contrast because
  (For A)
• Para 4 The reasons for the difference can be
  linked to Warhol and Lichtensteins differing
  interests. Lichtenstein aimed to. (Relate to
  artists aims for M)
• Para 5 Warhol, on the other hand, was
  interested in(Relate to artists aims for M)
• Para 6 Both artists were strongly influenced
  by America in the 1960s. (Comprehensively
  relate ideas to context for E)