art history
Roy LICHTENSTEIN Connecting the Dots ... in Pop by Joy Shannon
Whaam, 1963
O
nce you ‘got’ Pop, you could never see a sign the same way again. And once you thought Pop you could never see America the same way again.” (Andy Warhol) The Pop Art movement of the 1960s became known as an utter redefinition of what was considered art. Suddenly, artists were elevating everyday objects like soup cans to fine art pieces, and utilizing what were considered commercial painting or printing processes never before used in the realm of fine art. While Warhol was famous for using commercial screen printing, typically used to print signs and disposable posters, to create works that were displayed in fine Roy Lichtenstein art galleries, painter Roy Lichenstein was known for mimicking the commercial printing process called “Ben Day” dots used to inexpensively print comic books and newspapers. By elevating a printing process that was used in throw-away medias to large scale paintings and even sculpture, Lichenstein turned what was considered art upon its head, in proper Pop Art style.
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LOCALARTS.COM
Perhaps best known for his piece 1963 painting “Whaam!” Lichenstein recreated an image from the 1962 issue of DC Comics' All-American Men of War, which shows a jet fighter plane deploying a missile at another plane. The comic caption above the bright and almost patriotic primary-colored composition reads “I pressed the fire control… and ahead of me rockets blazed through the sky… Whaam!” In light of the tumultuous politics of 1962 and 1963, from the Cuban Missile crisis to the assassination of President Kennedy, taking such a bold and triumphant image of war and violence from a comic and isolating it on a large scale canvas, seemed to question American cultural ideals, concepts of war, politics and patriotism. By isolating and enlarging what were small and seemingly meaningless or insignificant pieces of comic imagery, Lichenstein’s work gives these comic panels immense amounts of weighted cultural significance and meaning. The artist’s use of melodramatic romantic comic imagery in such pieces as “Engagement Ring” (1961) and “Drowning Girl” (1963), highlight American pop cultural ideals of love, relationships between men and women and what is authentic in emotions or not. Like Warhol’s work omicontinued on pg. 62