Page 41 - Studio International - January 1968

Above variations) one characteristic: it is the sum-total of society these characteristics even in reproduction, is presented
Brushstroke with spatter 1966 and not a value condensed only in a few objects of by means of a compositional diagram. In 1966 Lichten-
oil and acrylic on canvas special value. The original purpose of the term Pop Art stein's interest in art references led him to Modern Art as a
65 x 80 in.
was to oppose a broad view of culture to the prevailing subject. In these works, on which he is at present engaged,
Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
exclusive one. On this basis, we can describe Lichtenstein style becomes an object as compact and real as a golf ball.
Above right as consistently taking material from culture on a wide `Cartoonists have developed explosions into specific
Modern painting 1 1966 basis and submitting it to the kind of discipline associated forms. That's why I like to do them in three dimensions
oil and acrylic on canvas with culture on a narrow basis. This does not mean that in enamel on steel. It makes something ephemeral com-
80 x 68 in. he confers dignity on low material, but that he is holding pletely concrete.'10 In his new work it is something as
Coll: Ileana Sonnabend, Paris
both possibilities within his work. The reference and the complex and mobile as a phase of our culture that he
structure, the transformation and the form, are both makes 'concrete'.
present in his work, and neither term can be dropped. 1930s ornament and industrial design (as it derives
The fact that his original material is not unprocessed from the arte moderne of the previous decade and from the
nature but the processed material of legible sign systems Bauhaus) are the main sources of his new painting and
forces recognition of this double focus. Lichtenstein al- sculpture. The strongly patterned repetition of bands,
ways works as if he had a collaborator, the artist who darts, arcs, fanned triangles, bisected discs, stepped forms,
created the original which is feeding the painting. Even rounded corners, and zig-zags have a diagrammatic
those works which are totally invented by the artist, such quality comparable to cartoons and comics. The form in
as the brushstrokes of 1965-6, evoke, by their deadpan these paintings is elaborately inflected. Lichtenstein has
dots and calm outline, another medium as collaborator. even begun to use screens with dots graded in size from
Lichtenstein's interest in other artists, as opposed to large to small, to create the scooped look that, for
other channels, showed during the comic books period, instance, so many movie theatre walls have. Previously,
1961-5, with his paintings from Cezanne, Picasso, and as in the sunsets and landscapes of 1964-5, he had over-
Mondrian. Their paintings are presented as filtered by laid screens in different colours to produce luminous and
reproduction, readable but simplified. To quote the artist dazzle effects, but always on an on-off, all-or-nothing,
once more : 'There is a relationship between cartooning basis, without internal variation. The early works in the
and people like Miró and Picasso which may not be Modern Art phase were all abstract, but in the recent
understood by the cartoonist, but it definitely is related pieces Lichtenstein is introducing figurative imagery,
even in the early Disney'.9 What he is drawing attention either in terms of heroic streamline, or as schematic
to is the clarity, legibility, and toughness of Miró and decorative images. The fish in the shower-curtain or
Picasso; it is relevant that Cezanne, who does not possess bathroom-wallpaper, the horse's head contour in a