Café

Caulfield did not welcome being bracketed as a 'Pop' artist and preferred the term 'formal' to describe his work. He commented, 'All the time I was working on things like the Swiss Chalet, a church, a view inside ruins, a well, a horse, people were doing Pepsi-Cola tins, girlie magazine images, American trucks, skyscrapers, whatever was up to date. I was doing something which I felt was more ambiguous in time. Not being old necessarily, something that could actually exist now but that was of a timeless nature. I do feel that if anything is worthwhile that it's about its own time, but that doesn't mean you have to actually reflect the time that specifically. I felt there was more scope in not choosing that kind of subject matter. It was coming mainly from American culture, as far as I could see. In fact I don't think that was really the sort of life that one was leading, anyway. One wasn't leading the polished chrome, racy life that these images suggest' (see exhibition catalogue, British Pop, Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes, 2006, p. 383).

In the present work, however, perhaps Caulfield comes close to Pop art in the almost comic book signage depicted. Much of Caulfield's work is related to eating and drinking, but he rarely shows people actually indulging in these activities. Instead Caulfield often paints deserted areas of consumption or habitation, leaving the viewer with a sense of expectation (see lot 105).

Café relates to a series of screenprints that Caulfield made in 1968, Café Sign, published by Leslie Waddington Prints, London (see A. Cristea, Patrick Caulfield: The Complete Prints 1964-1999, London, 1999, no. 12).