5.3.2.3: In the Car

In the Car

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Roy Lichtenstein, In the Car, 1963. Oil and magna on canvas, 172.00 x 203.50 cm. National Galleries, Scotland. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/DACS 2018. (Photo: National Galleries of Scotland, via Smarthistory)

Roy Lichtenstein

Born in New York, Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) was a child of upper-middle-class parents. In school, he was interested in music and art, frequently attending jazz concerts and sketching portraits of the musicians. Lichtenstein studied at Ohio State University until the Army drafted him during World War II. In the Army, he was trained in languages until the program was cut. Subsequently, he was sent to engineering school, and that program was eliminated, so he trained as a pilot until the program was also discontinued. Lichtenstein finally became a draftsman and was sent to Europe, where he studied the art of the masters until the end of the war when he went home. Lichtenstein returned to Ohio State, completing his bachelor's and master's degrees, teaching at the university for ten years. In 1957, Lichtenstein, his wife, and two sons moved back to upstate New York to teach at the university and work on his own Abstract Expressionism art. By 1960, he taught at Rutgers University and found an environment of pop imagery.

Lichtenstein created his first works based on comics and commercial advertising, even painting mundane items like tennis shoes and golf balls. The works were created by mirroring the crude printing methods used by newspapers. His success grew, and he painted some of his most famous and successful works, including Drowning Girl and Whaam. Much of his work was based on styles found in comic books and commercial art, initially not considered worthy of the standards found in fine art. Lichtenstein took the trivial and created art. His first break with the abstract world occurred when he inserted comic book characters into his abstracted backgrounds. Lichtenstein wanted to illustrate the comic world more closely. He started using Ben-Day dots (6.6.5), a tiny mechanical pattern generally found in engraving to represent texture and progressions of color. He created the dots by using perforated dot patterns in which his paintbrush would skim across the top and drop paint into the stencil circles. The dots were generally cyan, yellow, magenta, and black, their spacing and combinations used to produce different colors and shading. (The same concept used by modern computer printers.) His use of dots became a trademark. Lichtenstein copied a foundation image by hand, altering parts of the image, then tracing the drawing onto the canvas. He stated, "As directly as possible…From a cartoon, photograph, or whatever, I draw a small picture—the size that will fit into my opaque projector…I don't draw a picture to reproduce it—I do it in order to recompose it…I project the drawing onto the canvas and pencil it in and then I play around with the drawing until it satisfies me."[2] He manually applied the dots by hand, frequently using templates for different color patterns based on primary colors outlined with heavy black lines. Lichtenstein's subject matter and the use of dots brought the mechanical appearance of the commercial and comic world into the arena of fine art.

Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\): Close up of painting technique, by Max Braun, CC BY-SA 2.0

In Girl with Tear III (6.6.6), Lichtenstein used his dot process in a Surrealist setting. In one series, the incomplete face is focused on the eye, the origination of the tear, a parody of Dali or Picasso. He used red dots for the face against the slanted dark stripes in the background. The column mimics the stripes, except wider and vertical. The swoop of blond hair brings the different elements together. The single eye and tear focused outward in the center.

Figure \(\PageIndex{6}\): Girl with Tear III (1973, oil and magna on canvas, 289.4 x 336.4 cm) by Bob Ramsak, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The Drowning Girl (6.6.7) was based on an original image by DC Comics, an image Lichtenstein altered significantly by altering the picture he created using Ben-Day dots. The girl's boyfriend was in the original as he clung to a boat. Lichtenstein cropped the image, so only the girl was visible, waves threatening to engulf her as she fights for survival. She appears to be emotionally distressed as tears flow from her eyes. Lichtenstein also changed the caption and the boy's name in the text bubble to amplify the girl's distress alone in the water. He used a cool palette and dark colors to represent the potential dangers of the waves and water.

Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\): Drowning Girl (1963, oil and polymer on canvas, 171.6 x 169.5 cm) by Gandalf's Gallery, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Like Monet's set of paintings of the Rouen Cathedral, Lichtenstein also created a series based on photographs he viewed of Monet's work. Instead of painting the cathedrals in different lights and times of day, Lichtenstein's cathedrals (6.6.8) were divided into binary colors of dots. He wanted to use the concepts of Pop Art and its repetition with an iconic image, an image; "cheapened by overexposure, and reinvesting it with renewed, ironic vigor and relevance."[3] Lichtenstein used two colors in each painting; the red and yellow dots are interlocked to develop a clear image of the daylit cathedral (6.6.9, 6.6.10). The center painting is an illusion of a hazy morning, while the dark painting demonstrates the darkness of night. The Ben-Day dots reproduction dots, looking like the proofs from a printing press, create the symbolism of different light developed in mass reproduction. Monet investigated the various permutations of light on a single source, while Lichtenstein explored the reproductive values of the mass media.

Figure \(\PageIndex{8}\): Rouen Cathedral (1969, oil and magna on canvas, 161.6 x 360.3 cm) by wallyg, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Figure \(\PageIndex{9}\): Rouen Cathedral close up, by profzucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Figure \(\PageIndex{10}\): Rouen Cathedral Ben-Day dots, by profzucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

[2] Lanchner, C. (2009). Roy Lichtenstein (MOMA Artist Series), The Museum of Modern Art, p. 5.

[3] Retrieved from https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/monetlichtenstein-rouen-cathedrals