ROY LICHTENSTEIN PRINTS 1956-97

Six Still Lifes Series: Still Life with Portrait, 1974

I went to Roy Lichtenstein Prints 1956-97 on Sunday ay the Austin Museum of Art, and am still reeling. I purchased the catalog book for the show and am studying the essays and looking at the images again. The key here is to understand the printmaking that Roy employed to produce these works. This is not just crystal clear to me now, but I am giving it a shake. These are secrets of his trade, so his methods can not all be known. This one is a lithograph and a screenprint with debossing. Whatever, right...? The lithography printing entry for Wiki is helpful, but it does not shed light on how Roy combines it with other printmaking techniques such as screenprinting. I will have to study this further. This composition is simple and effective for me. It is not cluttered, but it is serious too...not just cartoonish. The play of diagonals is brilliant; the eye is drawn to the portrait of the girl, really just anyone in the good old USA! Things are overly generic and this is what makes it Pop art. You will have to read the piece on Pop Art from Time Magazine in 1966. It`s under articles on RL official page. This is clearing things up for me alot. You are thinking Norman Rockwell, but there is more humour and irony here. Also, this is more abstract...anti-cubist, anti-post-modern...just a real cute little image that you I would love to be hanging on my barren walls.I wish life was this clean. If we will just take our soma (1984) and go to the factory it will be!