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Lot Essay
In Standing Explosion (Blue), Roy Lichtenstein explores the potential of the two and three-dimensional nature of his signature explosion motif. In depicting an explosion—a high energy event, Lichtenstein masterfully creates dynamism with hard, industrial materials. This sculpture features multiple panels of cut steel, that, while smooth around the edges, create a sharp, jagged field through the offset nature of its layers. These layers add depth to Lichtenstein’s work while also evoking a sense of force that accompanies the drama of the explosion. A metallic, perforated sheet of steel achieves the quintessential comic style of the Pop movement, typifying the sculpture in Lichtenstein’s oeuvre.
Porcelain enamel covers the steel layers in punching red, white, and blue, adding vitality to the explosion Lichtenstein hoped to create. The slickness and sheen of the sculpture emphasize the process of its industrial nature while glossing over the explosion’s potential destruction. Standing Explosion (Blue) reveals a pervasive sense of irony, capturing a violent event in fun shapes and bright colors. As artist Ian Wallace explained in his writings on the Pop titan, for Roy Lichtenstein “enamel offered the opportunity to depict ephemeral subject matter in a manner that was ‘completely concrete’” (I. Wallace, “Something to Do: Manufacturing Roy Lichtenstein’s Sculptures,” G. Celant, Roy Lichtenstein: Sculptor, Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova, Venezia, 2013, p. 33).
Completed in 1965, Standing Explosion (Blue) was created in the midst of the Vietnam War when sentiments of previous tragedy underlay American society. Utilizing the image of an explosion from a popular World War II comic, Lichtenstein harped on these memories and brought them to life. For Lichtenstein, the explosion was a “crystalized symbol” that achieved not only a succinct representation of an explosion but also a pop cultural portrayal of such explosion. In doing so, Lichtenstein leveraged the vernacular of comic books to both question the manner in which vision is culturally coded and probe mainstream representations of the military-industrial complex in America. These representations were aggravated by “’virtual’ means of communication such as TV and publicity [that made] what was concrete and real…increasingly less important” (G. Celant, Roy Lichtenstein: Sculptor, ex. cat., Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova, Venezia, 2013, p. 19). As stylized icons of caricatural explosions were reproduced across comics and other popular print media, they were consumed by mass culture, becoming culturally dominant and ripe for artistic interpretation. Such ideology went on to define the Pop movement and its distinct style.
Though the sculpture is hand painted, Standing Explosion (Blue) mimics the mechanical process central to the Pop movement. As a material, the cut sheets of steel evoke the industrial underpinnings of routinized production applied to Lichtenstein’s artistic practice. There is a profound element of commerciality, noted in the “comic strip” perforated steel and the glossy, polished appearance of the work as a whole. In Standing Explosion (Blue), Lichtenstein’s materials capture and exaggerate the artificiality of mechanized artistic production that went on to define the Pop movement in art history.
Porcelain enamel covers the steel layers in punching red, white, and blue, adding vitality to the explosion Lichtenstein hoped to create. The slickness and sheen of the sculpture emphasize the process of its industrial nature while glossing over the explosion’s potential destruction. Standing Explosion (Blue) reveals a pervasive sense of irony, capturing a violent event in fun shapes and bright colors. As artist Ian Wallace explained in his writings on the Pop titan, for Roy Lichtenstein “enamel offered the opportunity to depict ephemeral subject matter in a manner that was ‘completely concrete’” (I. Wallace, “Something to Do: Manufacturing Roy Lichtenstein’s Sculptures,” G. Celant, Roy Lichtenstein: Sculptor, Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova, Venezia, 2013, p. 33).
Completed in 1965, Standing Explosion (Blue) was created in the midst of the Vietnam War when sentiments of previous tragedy underlay American society. Utilizing the image of an explosion from a popular World War II comic, Lichtenstein harped on these memories and brought them to life. For Lichtenstein, the explosion was a “crystalized symbol” that achieved not only a succinct representation of an explosion but also a pop cultural portrayal of such explosion. In doing so, Lichtenstein leveraged the vernacular of comic books to both question the manner in which vision is culturally coded and probe mainstream representations of the military-industrial complex in America. These representations were aggravated by “’virtual’ means of communication such as TV and publicity [that made] what was concrete and real…increasingly less important” (G. Celant, Roy Lichtenstein: Sculptor, ex. cat., Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova, Venezia, 2013, p. 19). As stylized icons of caricatural explosions were reproduced across comics and other popular print media, they were consumed by mass culture, becoming culturally dominant and ripe for artistic interpretation. Such ideology went on to define the Pop movement and its distinct style.
Though the sculpture is hand painted, Standing Explosion (Blue) mimics the mechanical process central to the Pop movement. As a material, the cut sheets of steel evoke the industrial underpinnings of routinized production applied to Lichtenstein’s artistic practice. There is a profound element of commerciality, noted in the “comic strip” perforated steel and the glossy, polished appearance of the work as a whole. In Standing Explosion (Blue), Lichtenstein’s materials capture and exaggerate the artificiality of mechanized artistic production that went on to define the Pop movement in art history.