拍品專文
The early 1960s marked a time when several young New York artists began to use banal media images--from advertisements, billboards and television--as sources for their art. Artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol--collectively known as the Pop Artists--sought to emphasize the transformation of the everyday object into art, while still maintaining their fine art roots. Lichtenstein is of primary importance to this movement, particularly for his images derived from both print advertisements and comic strips.
Although Lichtenstein's paintings of consumer products were his first true Pop works, it was the comic strips that followed them which were more significant. Painted from 1961-1965, the comic strip paintings generally fall into three categories: war and violence, love and romance and the less-often employed science fiction category. Collectively, this series addressed Lichtesntein's style and formal concerns, and emphasized the visual possibilities of the object he chose to paint. Of the three comic strip categories, the war and violence pictures are the most aggressive and intense. As in BLANG, these paintings present "a serious subject in an inflammatory manner, while reintroducing narrative into art and re-creating the mode of monumental painting in a style suitable to late twentieth-century art" (D. Waldman, Roy Lichtenstein, New York 1993, p. 93).
Roy Lichtenstein began painting his war comics in 1962, a time when most Americans were simultaneously glorifying and questioning the notion of war. These paintings sought to illustrate the inanity and senselessness of military combat. At this time, the United States was still lauding itself for its heroic victory in World War II; at the same time, however, Americans found themselves in the midst of the Cold War, and the Vietnam conflict was threatening to blow into full-scale combat. Diane Waldman explains further:
Lichtenstein's war paintings exaggerate the clichés of war's grand subjects--heroism and sacrifice, the fighting spirit and the camaraderie of soldiers, and the belief that war is hell but full of glory nonetheless. World War II was, and is, considered a 'just' war by most Americans but by the time of the Vietnam conflict the issue of war threatened to tear the nation apart . . . By presenting such stereotypes [of war] in an ironic and questioning manner, Lichtenstein cast doubt on their validity while continuing the tradition of one of civilization's most fundamental themes in art. (D. Waldman, Roy Lichtenstein, New York 1993, p. 93)
BLANG is considered one of Lichtenstein's greatest war comics, and it reflects the American Pop aesthetic of the time. The source for BLANG was derived from an everyday image, a 'representation of a representation:' a two-dimensional comic strip suggesting a three-dimensional object. However, Lichtenstein improved upon the original comic--probably from the Sergeant Rock or GI Combat series of D.C. Comics--by isolating in on a crucial moment in the sequence, in this case the instant when two tanks are exchanging gunfire. BLANG zooms in, crops and edits the image to visually draw the viewer into the picture. In addition, the tank and explosion are placed against a benday dot background, establishing a dialectical tension between figure and ground. However, Lichtenstein's painting style contrasts greatly with this use of emotional effect. Cool and reductive, his painting style draws from clues given by the comics themselves: the use bold colors--red, yellow, blue, green, black and white--accompanied by black outline to define the figures and benday dots to depict space. Lichtenstein has, in effect, presented a highly emotional moment in a cool manner.
BLANG is the center painting of a five-panel work entitled Live Ammo, originally installed together at the Leo Castelli Gallery but sold separately in 1962 as a diptych and three single paintings. The five panels were exhibited together only one other time: at The Art Institute of Chicago's Annual in 1963. The other paintings from this one-time polyptych are Live Ammo (diptych), Tzing!, and HA!HA!HA!.
Although Lichtenstein's paintings of consumer products were his first true Pop works, it was the comic strips that followed them which were more significant. Painted from 1961-1965, the comic strip paintings generally fall into three categories: war and violence, love and romance and the less-often employed science fiction category. Collectively, this series addressed Lichtesntein's style and formal concerns, and emphasized the visual possibilities of the object he chose to paint. Of the three comic strip categories, the war and violence pictures are the most aggressive and intense. As in BLANG, these paintings present "a serious subject in an inflammatory manner, while reintroducing narrative into art and re-creating the mode of monumental painting in a style suitable to late twentieth-century art" (D. Waldman, Roy Lichtenstein, New York 1993, p. 93).
Roy Lichtenstein began painting his war comics in 1962, a time when most Americans were simultaneously glorifying and questioning the notion of war. These paintings sought to illustrate the inanity and senselessness of military combat. At this time, the United States was still lauding itself for its heroic victory in World War II; at the same time, however, Americans found themselves in the midst of the Cold War, and the Vietnam conflict was threatening to blow into full-scale combat. Diane Waldman explains further:
Lichtenstein's war paintings exaggerate the clichés of war's grand subjects--heroism and sacrifice, the fighting spirit and the camaraderie of soldiers, and the belief that war is hell but full of glory nonetheless. World War II was, and is, considered a 'just' war by most Americans but by the time of the Vietnam conflict the issue of war threatened to tear the nation apart . . . By presenting such stereotypes [of war] in an ironic and questioning manner, Lichtenstein cast doubt on their validity while continuing the tradition of one of civilization's most fundamental themes in art. (D. Waldman, Roy Lichtenstein, New York 1993, p. 93)
BLANG is considered one of Lichtenstein's greatest war comics, and it reflects the American Pop aesthetic of the time. The source for BLANG was derived from an everyday image, a 'representation of a representation:' a two-dimensional comic strip suggesting a three-dimensional object. However, Lichtenstein improved upon the original comic--probably from the Sergeant Rock or GI Combat series of D.C. Comics--by isolating in on a crucial moment in the sequence, in this case the instant when two tanks are exchanging gunfire. BLANG zooms in, crops and edits the image to visually draw the viewer into the picture. In addition, the tank and explosion are placed against a benday dot background, establishing a dialectical tension between figure and ground. However, Lichtenstein's painting style contrasts greatly with this use of emotional effect. Cool and reductive, his painting style draws from clues given by the comics themselves: the use bold colors--red, yellow, blue, green, black and white--accompanied by black outline to define the figures and benday dots to depict space. Lichtenstein has, in effect, presented a highly emotional moment in a cool manner.
BLANG is the center painting of a five-panel work entitled Live Ammo, originally installed together at the Leo Castelli Gallery but sold separately in 1962 as a diptych and three single paintings. The five panels were exhibited together only one other time: at The Art Institute of Chicago's Annual in 1963. The other paintings from this one-time polyptych are Live Ammo (diptych), Tzing!, and HA!HA!HA!.