Roy Lichtenstein

The first thing that I noticed about the work of Roy Lichtenstein was his incredible use of color and graphic detail in the painting shown in the book. When I turned to that page (137), the painting immediately drew my attention. I love pretty much everything about what he did with his use of the comic book style/mass media commercialism as the influence of his paintings. I can't get over the extreme detail that he uses to outline everything and his use of shadows to make all of the colors stand out even more. The captions that he puts at the top of his paintings are also really wonderful. I like it because, much like a comic book, your can get a little more insight into the character's head and also, I think, a little more insight into what Lichtenstein was trying to say with his work.
I also really like how the main figure in this painting outlines what the book called his 'bringing attention to familiar cliches and stereotypes of popular entertainment...violence and romance are trivialized in the fictional lives of Liechtenstein's superheroes and helpless women." I think this picture portrays that quite accurately. This is exactly what I would expect a war-hardened general to look like, scar on his cheek, eyes narrowed in concentration, his knuckles tightly clenching the handle...I think that it does make a comment on how, after years of war, it's easy to trivialize violence.


This painting, called 'Drowning Girl' also shows the 'helpless woman' side of his work. I don't know about most girls, but if I was drowning I might actually...gee I don't know...try to swim?! But in his painting she only has two options;call for the assumably handsome and muscular Brad's help or drown. To me, that speaks to the formerly prevailing ideas in Hollywood popular films that without the hero, the heroine simply can't accomplish any thing. That without a man, a woman is pretty much helpless. However, I think that the fact that Liechtenstein's fictional character chooses to drown rather than ask for help is also indicative of the changing mindset of woman's rights at the time. She realizes that she doesn't have to depend on Brad anymore. Although things were just getting started when Lichtenstein was busy creating his paintings, I think it does speak to the shifting cultural views.





Something else that I really like about Lichtenstein is his use of multiple mediums. Along with paintings, he also did several sculptures. This one, called Brushstrokes in Flight (1984) looks pretty similar to lots of his paintings to me. The use of the bold color, the large shapes and shadows all look very similar to his painting 'Torpedo...Los'. It's just so different and eye catching that I really can't help but like it! Overall, I'd have to give Lichtenstein my stamp of approval for his work. It's appealing, it's interesting, it has a message without being propaganda-like... it pretty much has everything!