Lot Essay
"Lichtenstein's sculptures have focused on a range of themes over several decades, including art-historical styles, Art Deco design, and his own invented forms. With characteristic irony, Lichtenstein has been addressing issues of three-dimensional space via his sculptural versions of two-dimensional images, translating motifs from one realm into the other, motifs as varied as mirror reflections, steam rising from a coffee cup, light streaming from a lamp, a whiplash brushstroke, and an Expressionist head. By maintaining the flatness, altering the scale, and applying process color and Benday dots, he deliberately undermines his representation of the object and our perception of it..." (D. Waldman, Roy Lichtenstein, New York, 1993, p. 335).
Lichtenstein has portrayed the Abstract Expressionist brushstroke in a series of paintings beginning in 1965. In Brushstroke Chair and Ottoman, Lichtenstein turns the two-dimensional brushstroke into a massive, painted bronze, a three-dimensional, utilitarian object. Lichtenstein's chair and ottoman turn the world upside down. They force us to examine our pre-conceived notion of reality: an Abstract Expressionist brushstroke becomes a strong, structural object that is not only not "abstract" but is functional as well.
Lichtenstein has portrayed the Abstract Expressionist brushstroke in a series of paintings beginning in 1965. In Brushstroke Chair and Ottoman, Lichtenstein turns the two-dimensional brushstroke into a massive, painted bronze, a three-dimensional, utilitarian object. Lichtenstein's chair and ottoman turn the world upside down. They force us to examine our pre-conceived notion of reality: an Abstract Expressionist brushstroke becomes a strong, structural object that is not only not "abstract" but is functional as well.