ROY LICHTENSTEIN at the TATE MODERN

ROY LICHTENSTEIN at the TATE MODERN

Roy Lichtensten (1923-1997) was born in New York City into an upper-middle class Jewish family. He studied fine art at Ohio State University during World War 2 then went to the army (1942-45). His father Milton was a real estate broker, managing parking lots and car parks. After the war he continued with his studies at university. Throughout the 1950s he learnt his craft by imitating the works of the European masters, Picasso, Braque, Matisse and learning from the art movements, surrealism, cubism, expressionism, they represented but ultimately either destroyed or lost his work from this period by 1960. He initially adopted then rebelled against the prevailing orthodoxy of abstract expressionism represented by the works of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky and Mark Rothko.

However, his great breakthrough into a personal voice was his work 'Look Mickey' (1961). Lichtenstein found this image in his son's comic but his transposition isn't mere imitation. He uses a restricted palette of three colours like the original, text in the form of speech bubbles and thought bubbles, thick black outlines and Benday dots (named after the American artist and inventor Benjamin Day who began using such dots in a series of illustration. They also seem akin to pontillism). This work led to Lichtenstein being regarded as a 'pop artist' rather than an abstract expressionist. As the 60s progressed Lichtenstein became linked to the pop art movement and to other pop artists such as Andy Warhol.

In his early paintings 'Spray' (1962) and 'Sponge' (1962) Lichtenstein depicts ordinary household items, a sponge and a spray can, being held by a woman's hand. The hand seems to be disembodied, becoming a part of the thing depicted. These canvasses exhibit a limited palette of three or four colours but there's an absence of text and Benday dots. There's a political message in the background but a political message that's very attenuated. The centre piece of Lichtenstein's main work from this period, 'Whaam!' (1963), is also the main work from his entire oeuvre. The work is actually a compression or adaptation rather than a literal copy of a comic book image. Lichtenstein removed all extraneous detail from his work which is more focused, pared-back and immediate than the original. However, the original comic book Lichtenstein adapted from is today worth about £5.00 yet his giant canvas is worth millions of pounds, a worthwhile paradox but not one that Lichtenstein would have cared about at all. Obviously it was his image that shocked society and scandalized the art world not the comic book.

At this time Lichtenstein created other images of war, notably 'Bratatat' (1962) and 'Torpedo...Los' (1963). Like his work 'Look Mickey' these works incorporate a limited palette, speech bubbles, thought bubbles and sometimes a narratorial comment, Benday dots and single words, often onamatoepeic or nonsensical like whaam, bratatat. These seem to sum up instantaneous, absolute destruction by modern weapons, the torpedo armed sub, the jet armed with heat-seeking missiles. These images seem to simultaneously confirm and undermine militarism since there's something all too immediate, apparant, slick and summarised in these images. However, some viewers might regard them as the perfect introduction to an army career.

At the same time that he was making these works Lichtenstein set out to create works that lampooned the American public's appetite for comic book romance, for instance 'Oh, Jeff...I love you, too...but...' (1964) and 'Ohhh...Alright...' (1964). These canvases are summarised by Lichtenstein's use of Benday dots for flesh tones, thick black outlines, solid blocks of colours and speech bubbles. In many ways these traits comprise a lexicon of broken art rules or 'bad painting' as some would say. They seem to simultaneously undermine and confirm romantic expectations or conventions. Lichtenstein continued this work but reduced the palette to a monotone and then created a series of seascapes and art deco installations for numerous American public buildings. 

By the middle of his career he was ready for a further retrospective and was intent on creating parodies of the great art he loved, particularly Picasso who he regarded as 'the greatest artist of the Twentieth-century’. His work 'Non-Objective' (1964) also references Piet Mondrian but this time a Mondrian with Benday dots. In his last works Lichtenstein incorporates elements of pastiche by referencing not only the works of the great masters but his first hits too and then he re-discovers the nude by copying comic book nudes with varying amplitudes of Benday dots but also the landscapes of ancient Chinese masters. Some of the last works seem heartless but Lichtenstein never lingers on the emotional subtlety of the work for essentially this is the art of the teenager, a summary of what’s best and worst in American art.

Paul Murphy, Tate Modern, April 2013