Roy Lichtenstein
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
Roy Lichtenstein Details
Book by WALDMAN, Diane Read more
Reviews
In the early to mid-1950s, it seemed like modern art was inevitably and permanently headed towards ever more spiritual abstraction. Then out popped the popular art created by Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, among others. Nothing could have been more different and more direct in its focus and style.But there's more there than meets the eye. Lichtenstein's work opened up doors to hitherto unexpected potential for a variety of art styles from Impressionism and Cubism to the classic still life.As you become more familiar with the work, the strong ties to Matisse's desire to simplify to the essence become apparent . . . but in a new form.This book is an astonishing resource from a number of perspectives:1. The images are a superb compilation of Lichtenstein's work through the time of his Guggenheim retrospective in 1993.2. Most of the images are placed next to the sources for Lichtenstein's pieces. This permits you to better see how Lichtenstein transformed his prosaic sources.3. Ms. Waldman, who wrote the main essay, has an astonishingly good understanding of this work which she conveys both visually and in her writing. You'll know more about Benday dots than you ever thought possible before you're done. I was intrigued to see how much the technique for these dots (familiar to us all from newspaper images and comic books) changed over time and how those changes affected how the art looks and appeals to the viewer.4. Excellent information about the raw materials and how they influenced the resulting works.I only found Ms. Waldman off the mark in a few places. She seems to think that Americans only flew combat missions in World War II and in Vietnam, and mistakenly describes Korean War jet fighters as belonging to the former conflict. Ms. Waldman also seems to find Mr. Lichtenstein's murals beyond her interpretive abilities. When an artist creates so much that is direct, why not explore the meaning of his more obscure works in careful detail? The text could also have been made a lot more interesting by concentrating the discussion of Benday dots into a shorter essay so that every other paragraph didn't have to mention the dots.