Art Analysis_Deemer
Roy Lichtenstein was a very inspirational artist in the twentieth century. Specifically the second half. Lichtenstein specialized in pop art. Pop art is a type of art that was inspired by pop culture to make art fun and colorful. It was very popular in the 1950s and 60s. Lichtenstein started his painting in the late 40s and early 50s. He started working in series. His iconography was inspired by printed images. Which is just using symbols and figures to portray a meaning in an art piece. In 1960, he would find what he called the "dumbest" and "worst" pieces and change them to make them better. He tried out some different art forms, one being taking comic strips and recreating them to have abstract backgrounds. In 1961, Lichtenstein decided on his signature art form. Pop art. In 1963, he published my favorite piece of his. The "Drowning Girl" was inspired and recreated from the comic "Run for Love" by Tony Aburzzo in 1962. It was painted in 1963 in Southampton, New York. This piece was painted on a large canvas that was 5 feet and 8 inches high and 5 feet and 7 inches wide. He used oil and synthetic polymer paint. Lichtenstein used a few different styles in this piece. Like pointillism.
Color: The colors Lichtenstein used are red, blue, black, and white. The painting is very blue-based. Her hair has that specific sense of shadow to it because of the two different shades of blue used. It adds that extra depth you didn't know you needed. Blue is often associated with sadness, crying, and feeling down. Which is exactly the mood I got when I looked at it. If you look closely into the waves, you can see dots. We call this pointillism. Pointillism is when you use dots to create a painting instead of brush lines.
Lichtenstein used this to mock the original and classic look of a comic book. The girl's skin seems to be a pink, peachy color, but if you zoom in, it's actually a bunch of tiny red dots.
Texture: Everyone knows what classic comic book paper looks like. It's extremely colorful, and there are those little dots you see to add some texture. When I look at this painting, I feel like the texture would be just that. A piece of paper used in comic books. Lichtenstein used pointillism to recreate the look of the paper.
Space: Lichtenstein used his space really well in this piece. The girl takes up more than half of the canvas, while the water covers the rest. The girl is only partially out of the water. You only see part of her shoulder, a hand, and her face. Even though so little of her is being shown, she was still painted really well onto the piece and takes up a lot of space, but not too much. The water was painted really well on there too. The girl was actively drowning in the piece, but the water was splashing and being so overwhelming and covering the beauty of the girl's face.
If you'd like to know more about "Run for Love," here is the summary:
"Run for Love" was about an ugly girl named Vickie with four beautiful sisters. Boys didn't want her, and she was considered an outcast. She became a very stubborn girl. Not wanting any help from any man. One day, she sees this man named Mal (aka Brad) on the side of the road. His car broke down, and he's trying to fix it. She asks if he needs help, and he tells her to leave. Later that day she sees him on the side of the road again! The car won't fix, so she drives him to a garage. That night she dreams of him. The next day, she goes to a beach and sees a sailboat tipped over. She swims out to see if anybody needs help, and coincidentally, she sees Mal. He snaps at her and tells her to go because he doesn't want help from a woman. As Vickie is swimming back, her body paralyzes, and she says, "I won't call him—no matter what—I'd rather sink first." He quickly saves her and brings her back to shore.
Bibliography:
Almy, Laurence. “Drowning Girl by Roy Lichtenstein Story and Origin.” gallery, 3 Nov. 2023, www.laurencedevalmy.com/post/did-drowning-girl-lichtenstein-really-drown
De V
I find your choice of work really interesting-- is there any reason in particular you feel more drawn to Lichtenstein's painting than Abruzzo's original illustration? I have a strong dislike for how derivative Lichtenstein's pieces are, and although that conversation isn't necessarily related to this assignment, I do think it's worth talking about. Intellectual Property attorney Chris Beckman has a short and sweet article about the gray-area of this kind of copying: https://www.beckman.law/blog/derivative-works-roy-liechtensteins-fifth-kiss
ReplyDeleteI did also want to point out that on a technical level, the dots in Lichtenstein's work aren't pointillism (small dots made with dabs of a brush). They're stenciled circles (keep in mind these works are usually >5' long) made to imitate mechanically-printed Ben-Day dots, which were the result of cheap color printing methods invented in the 19th century and popularly used in the mid-to-late 1900s for comics.
I was curious about pop artists. The only one I have seen that was classified as pop art was the soup cans. I think I will have to look at more of Roy Lichtenstein's pieces.
ReplyDeleteHave you heard of Joseph Beuys? This article came up when I went to google arts https://artsandculture.google.com/story/wQXBY0uN6pXO2A?hl=en.
I don't think I would own the drowning girl piece, but it is an admirable piece.