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Lot Essay
Roy Lichtenstein’s Like New is one of Lichtenstein’s earliest drawings, related to a series of drawings and paintings in which Lichtenstein transformed and elevated mundane advertising source imagery into another realm of representation. Especially with works on paper, where Lichtenstein’s hand has control over the mediums of graphite or ink, the ordinary becomes something of contemplative beauty. As Robert Rosenblum has described, “there could hardly be a better example of Lichtenstein’s ability to re-create the tawdry visual environment of commercial imagery as an extraordinary abstract invention” (R. Rosenblum, quoted by I. Dervaux, Roy Lichtenstein: The Black and White Drawings 1961-1964, exh. cat., New York, 2010, p. 122). The image of Like New is based on an advertisement for a screen door repair service—and also recalls the lure of quick fixes, new conveniences and self-improvement which cluttered magazines and newspapers in the Post-War years. Andy Warhol was also moved by this phenomena most famously in his Before and After, 1961—espousing the virtues of rhinoplasty and reinvention. Lichtenstein also used the diptych format for Step on Can with Leg, 1962 showing the marvels of a modern kitchen trash can which can be conveniently opened with the tap of your foot.
In this work, and the companion painting, Lichtenstein explores issues that were at the heart of his drawing practice. These drawings are not sketches or studies in the traditional art historical sense, but rather they act as the initial stage in a process that resulted in his large-scale paintings. Lichtenstein would use works such as Like New to determine the composition of his painting, often cropping or
slightly altering his original source image and bringing in the framing edge thereby seemingly enlarging the image. In the case of the present work, it is drawn by Lichtenstein’s own hand, whereas the larger painting is rendered using the artist’s iconic Ben-Day dots. As Bernice Rose, the curator of Lichtenstein’s major drawings retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in 1987 (an exhibition which included the present work) states, they provided remarkable firsthand evidence of Lichtenstein’s artistic process—a process that helped to re-write the established rules of painting that had gone unchallenged for centuries, “They…document the consistency of Lichtenstein’s style and his development, year by year, almost image by image” (B. Rose, The Drawings of Roy Lichtenstein, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1987, p. 29).
In this work, and the companion painting, Lichtenstein explores issues that were at the heart of his drawing practice. These drawings are not sketches or studies in the traditional art historical sense, but rather they act as the initial stage in a process that resulted in his large-scale paintings. Lichtenstein would use works such as Like New to determine the composition of his painting, often cropping or
slightly altering his original source image and bringing in the framing edge thereby seemingly enlarging the image. In the case of the present work, it is drawn by Lichtenstein’s own hand, whereas the larger painting is rendered using the artist’s iconic Ben-Day dots. As Bernice Rose, the curator of Lichtenstein’s major drawings retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in 1987 (an exhibition which included the present work) states, they provided remarkable firsthand evidence of Lichtenstein’s artistic process—a process that helped to re-write the established rules of painting that had gone unchallenged for centuries, “They…document the consistency of Lichtenstein’s style and his development, year by year, almost image by image” (B. Rose, The Drawings of Roy Lichtenstein, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1987, p. 29).