Lot Essay
Known for his adoption and personalization of a seemingly anonymous style, Roy Lichtenstein’s inquiry into pop culture and its abutment to art history kickstarted Pop Art and will forever be a high point of mid-century American ingenuity. By translating mass-produced imagery from advertisements, comic books, and other print media into the realm of high art, the artist’s meticulous paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures broke from the Abstract Expressionist timeline and forged a new connection between art and everyday life. Lamp takes this exploration into three dimensions as it vacillates between the flatness of the printed page and the real world.
Capitalizing on his knack for ordering simple forms into bold images, Lichtenstein’s sculptures champion the same vibrant planes of color and thick linework that propelled him to international notoriety in the 1960s. However, though almost immediately accepted by the public (perhaps in part because of his subjects’ universal familiarity), Lichtenstein remained a staunch investigator of artistic tradition. He noted, "All my art is, in some way, about other art." (R. Lichtenstein, quoted in J. Hendrickson, Roy Lichtenstein, Cologne, 2000). By sticking to a style that eschewed the artist’s hand and foregrounded subject and composition, the artist was able to deliver a bold treatise on the visual culture of the 20th century that will remain relevant for years to come.
Jolting out of the ground (or floating in mid-air depending on your view), Lamp looks more like an animation cel overlaid on the real than any traditional sculptural object. Realized in painted bronze, the green, bowl-shaped shade, its connecting cord severed, holds a round incandescent bulb that could be found in any twentieth-century household. From this source streams a pair of vivid yellow streaks that are echoed on the edges by coordinating lines of red and white. Among these stylized streams are thick black outlines and crosshatching that make the whole thing decidedly Lichtenstein and bears more than a passing resemblance to the image reproduction techniques used in the mass media.
However, where one would usually find a background color or the pale surface of the canvas or paper, the artist has left room between each of his marks in metal to create a collection of negative spaces. This negation allows the living world to become part of his composition and forces a more complex interaction with the work. Focusing only on Lamp, the background reads as part of the work and helps to facilitate a flat, graphic reading of the piece. However, by looking through the empty spaces at the scene around the sculpture, your brain pops out of two dimensions and is forced to reckon with a cartoon object in a physical world. One is reminded of the interactions between fictional characters and human actors in movies like Cool World, 1992, or Who Framed Roger Rabbit, 1988 as the line between dimensions is continuously blurred.
Lamp translates Lichtenstein’s precision in paint into a crisp accuracy only enameled metal can achieve. As if clipped from a comic book page and transported into our world without any regard for physical laws, the sculpture confuses our sense of space by seamlessly marrying two and three dimensions into one amalgam. Art historian Diane Waldman intones, "Lichtenstein's sculpture is an extension of his painting. With enamel, Lichtenstein accomplished two objectives: he reinforced the look of mechanical perfection that paint could only simulate but not duplicate and it provided the perfect opportunity to make an ephemeral form concrete" (D. Waldman, Roy Lichtenstein, New York, 1971, p. 23). Hovering like some alien saucer, the titular light source throws its rays diagonally toward the ground where they widen and strike with luminous force. One can see the light emanating from the bulb, but at the same time the brain knows that this is merely an illustration of electrical output and that the sculpture itself has no actual glow. Nevertheless, Lichtenstein’s ability to make the incandescence both immaterial and the literal support of the whole work speaks volumes to his artistic ability.
Lichtenstein is well known for his exploration of painterly tropes filtered through his trademark impersonal style. Taking as his subject the female nude, the well-placed still life, or even the expressive brushstroke, the artist worked to reinvent and recontextualize time-honored imagery in a way that both connected to historical art and popular culture. As Hal Foster writes, "The collision of high and low modes is the very strategy of his art, indeed of Pop in general, and here he extends it to sculpture as well: traditional bust meets abstract mannequin, Abstract Expressionist brushstroke meets cartoon sign of the same. Crucially, however, the reference to traditional genres not only frames this collision, but in doing so, controls it as well" (H. Foster, Roy Lichtenstein, Sculpture, exh. cat., New York, Gagosian Gallery, 2005). Lamp takes a ubiquitous object from the domestic interior and divorces it from its everyday surroundings. Almost totally made up of stylized light, the sculpture’s form becomes dynamic and nearly abstract. Lichtenstein’s ability to flit between the mundane and the avant-garde is on full display in this bronze beacon.
Roy Lichtenstein sitting outside his Southampton studio, New York, 1981 (present lot illustrated). Photo by Arthur Schatz/Getty Images. Artwork: © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein.
Capitalizing on his knack for ordering simple forms into bold images, Lichtenstein’s sculptures champion the same vibrant planes of color and thick linework that propelled him to international notoriety in the 1960s. However, though almost immediately accepted by the public (perhaps in part because of his subjects’ universal familiarity), Lichtenstein remained a staunch investigator of artistic tradition. He noted, "All my art is, in some way, about other art." (R. Lichtenstein, quoted in J. Hendrickson, Roy Lichtenstein, Cologne, 2000). By sticking to a style that eschewed the artist’s hand and foregrounded subject and composition, the artist was able to deliver a bold treatise on the visual culture of the 20th century that will remain relevant for years to come.
Jolting out of the ground (or floating in mid-air depending on your view), Lamp looks more like an animation cel overlaid on the real than any traditional sculptural object. Realized in painted bronze, the green, bowl-shaped shade, its connecting cord severed, holds a round incandescent bulb that could be found in any twentieth-century household. From this source streams a pair of vivid yellow streaks that are echoed on the edges by coordinating lines of red and white. Among these stylized streams are thick black outlines and crosshatching that make the whole thing decidedly Lichtenstein and bears more than a passing resemblance to the image reproduction techniques used in the mass media.
However, where one would usually find a background color or the pale surface of the canvas or paper, the artist has left room between each of his marks in metal to create a collection of negative spaces. This negation allows the living world to become part of his composition and forces a more complex interaction with the work. Focusing only on Lamp, the background reads as part of the work and helps to facilitate a flat, graphic reading of the piece. However, by looking through the empty spaces at the scene around the sculpture, your brain pops out of two dimensions and is forced to reckon with a cartoon object in a physical world. One is reminded of the interactions between fictional characters and human actors in movies like Cool World, 1992, or Who Framed Roger Rabbit, 1988 as the line between dimensions is continuously blurred.
Lamp translates Lichtenstein’s precision in paint into a crisp accuracy only enameled metal can achieve. As if clipped from a comic book page and transported into our world without any regard for physical laws, the sculpture confuses our sense of space by seamlessly marrying two and three dimensions into one amalgam. Art historian Diane Waldman intones, "Lichtenstein's sculpture is an extension of his painting. With enamel, Lichtenstein accomplished two objectives: he reinforced the look of mechanical perfection that paint could only simulate but not duplicate and it provided the perfect opportunity to make an ephemeral form concrete" (D. Waldman, Roy Lichtenstein, New York, 1971, p. 23). Hovering like some alien saucer, the titular light source throws its rays diagonally toward the ground where they widen and strike with luminous force. One can see the light emanating from the bulb, but at the same time the brain knows that this is merely an illustration of electrical output and that the sculpture itself has no actual glow. Nevertheless, Lichtenstein’s ability to make the incandescence both immaterial and the literal support of the whole work speaks volumes to his artistic ability.
Lichtenstein is well known for his exploration of painterly tropes filtered through his trademark impersonal style. Taking as his subject the female nude, the well-placed still life, or even the expressive brushstroke, the artist worked to reinvent and recontextualize time-honored imagery in a way that both connected to historical art and popular culture. As Hal Foster writes, "The collision of high and low modes is the very strategy of his art, indeed of Pop in general, and here he extends it to sculpture as well: traditional bust meets abstract mannequin, Abstract Expressionist brushstroke meets cartoon sign of the same. Crucially, however, the reference to traditional genres not only frames this collision, but in doing so, controls it as well" (H. Foster, Roy Lichtenstein, Sculpture, exh. cat., New York, Gagosian Gallery, 2005). Lamp takes a ubiquitous object from the domestic interior and divorces it from its everyday surroundings. Almost totally made up of stylized light, the sculpture’s form becomes dynamic and nearly abstract. Lichtenstein’s ability to flit between the mundane and the avant-garde is on full display in this bronze beacon.
Roy Lichtenstein sitting outside his Southampton studio, New York, 1981 (present lot illustrated). Photo by Arthur Schatz/Getty Images. Artwork: © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein.