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拍品专文
As one of the last series before Lichtenstein's death in 1997, the Nudes series was a first among many in then his nearly 50-year graphic oeuvre. His first attempt to use variable-sized Ben-Day dots began in the 1970s (see the Mirror series, lot 267-69) and continued through the end of his career. In Two Nudes, one of nine relief prints in the series, the dots' application and function vary. No longer are they contained within the boundaries of a single subject but flow over several subjects at a time, serving as two-dimensional decorative overlay in addition to their suggestion of three-dimensional space and form. As Lichtenstein noted in an interview on this series the nude form is "a good excuse to contrast undulating and volumetric form with rigid geometry." (Robert Hurlburt, "Lichtenstein Returns to Comic-Book Style," Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), November 13, 1994)
Two Nudes also introduces a different intermediary step that Lichtenstein possibly never envisioned: the use of the computer to generate patterns. In the early 1960s Lichtenstein hand-cut pochoir stencils which, for a few years, produced imperfect dots as well as the repetitive pattern of the stencil itself. (In his drawings of the same time his rudimentary experiments with frottage (rubbing) incorporated mosquito netting and window screening.) While never fully abandoning hand-cut stencils in the series, in this case Tyler Graphics' printers created hand-cut stencils for the irregularly shaped pieces which provided the prints' low relief and areas for the subjects, Lichtenstein also collaborated with Swan Engraving who produced computer-generated dye-cut stencils for the dots and various patterns.
However novel the technical processes and application in Nudes proved, Lichtenstein's imagery exhibits a far greater step forward, as Two Nudes inhabits the ether of virtual reality (and voyeurism) more than the material world of comic books and cartoons. The actual nude appeared as a subject most prominently during the artist's last decade and in several instances contains iconographic references to earlier works such as his 1994 painting Nude with Beach Ball which harks back to his iconic Girl with Ball of 1961. These highly sexualized portrayals of "love" and "girl" comic book illustrations are a first, whose literal stripping reveals their blatant and uncomplicated erotic availability.
Two Nudes also introduces a different intermediary step that Lichtenstein possibly never envisioned: the use of the computer to generate patterns. In the early 1960s Lichtenstein hand-cut pochoir stencils which, for a few years, produced imperfect dots as well as the repetitive pattern of the stencil itself. (In his drawings of the same time his rudimentary experiments with frottage (rubbing) incorporated mosquito netting and window screening.) While never fully abandoning hand-cut stencils in the series, in this case Tyler Graphics' printers created hand-cut stencils for the irregularly shaped pieces which provided the prints' low relief and areas for the subjects, Lichtenstein also collaborated with Swan Engraving who produced computer-generated dye-cut stencils for the dots and various patterns.
However novel the technical processes and application in Nudes proved, Lichtenstein's imagery exhibits a far greater step forward, as Two Nudes inhabits the ether of virtual reality (and voyeurism) more than the material world of comic books and cartoons. The actual nude appeared as a subject most prominently during the artist's last decade and in several instances contains iconographic references to earlier works such as his 1994 painting Nude with Beach Ball which harks back to his iconic Girl with Ball of 1961. These highly sexualized portrayals of "love" and "girl" comic book illustrations are a first, whose literal stripping reveals their blatant and uncomplicated erotic availability.