Sixty Works by Modern Masters - Flipbook - Page 109
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein
American, 1923 - 1997
Modern Tapestry Cartoon/Collage for Modern Painting
with Classic Head, 1967
Painted and printed paper collage, felt tip marker, coloured tape and ink on
board
20 x 26 inches / 53.1 x 66 cm
Signed lower right: © rf Lichtenstein
The present work is the study for a
painting in Lichtenstein’s Modern
Painting series, which the artist
began in the late 1960s. The series
sees Lichtenstein embark on a new
aesthetic experiment, in which he
combines Art Deco-style imagery
from the inter-war years with his
trademark cartoon-inspired hard
lines and Ben-Day dots.
The densely-packed forms in this
collage communicate the powerful
concepts of modern idealism,
progress and prosperity. Carefully
arranged beneath the sliced image
of a sunburst, fragments of ocean
liner, smokestacks, a propeller plane
and an ionic column converge to
celebrate, in Lichtenstein’s words,
the ‘golden era’ of modernity.
Provenance
Charles E. Slatkin Galleries, New York
Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
James Goodman Gallery, New York
Galerie Beyeler, Basel
Acquired from the above by the previous owner
Exhibited
New York, The School of Visual Arts, Visual Arts Museum, Roy Lichtenstein:
Collages, October 1976
Valencia, California Institute of Arts, Roy Lichtenstein CalArts: Drawings and
Collages from the Artist’s Collection, April-May 1977, no. 18, illustrated p. 61
Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, March-May 1991,
no. 1, illustrated in colour
"When I worked on a painting I would do it from a drawing
but I would put certain things I was fairly sure I wanted in the
painting, and then collage on the painting with printed dots or
painted paper or something before I really committed it."
108