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Lot Essay
It started when I tried to photograph a print by Robert Rauschenberg that was under glass. But the light from a window reflected on the surface of the glass and prevented me from taking a good picture. But it gave me the idea … where the reflection would hide most of the work, but you could still make out what the subject was. … It portrays a painting under glass. It is framed and the glass is preventing you from seeing the painting.
(Roy Lichtenstein, ‘A Review of My Work Since 1961’, in: G. Bader, Roy Lichtenstein, October Files, New York, 2009, p. 69.)
In the Reflections Series, Lichtenstein investigates the ways in which the reflective surface can both prevent and enable comprehension of the underlying subject. 'It enable[d] him to unleash a new range of inventive bravura, a heightened exploitation of spatial effects, and a new freedom in suggesting illusion' (E. Baker, 'The Glass of Fashion and the Mold of Form’ in: J. Coplans (ed.), Roy Lichtenstein, New York, 1972, p. 179). The figure is partially obscured by diagonal blocks of white filled with dots and diagonal dashes. The colour of the blue on white suggests a reflective sheen and the metallic PVC strip of collage in the center of the composition heightens this effect of light reflections.
'Mirrors are flat objects that have surfaces you can't easily see since they're always reflecting what's around them. There's no simple way to draw a mirror, so cartoonists invented dashed or diagonal lines to signify 'mirror'. Now, you see those lines and you know it means 'mirror' even though there are obviously no such lines in reality. If you put horizontal, instead of diagonal lines across the same object, it wouldn't say 'mirror'. It's a convention that we unconsciously accept’ (R. Lichtenstein quoted in: M. Kimmelman, ‘Roy Lichtenstein at the Met - Portraits, Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, The Louvre and elsewhere’, The New York Times, 31 March 1995, p. C1).
(Roy Lichtenstein, ‘A Review of My Work Since 1961’, in: G. Bader, Roy Lichtenstein, October Files, New York, 2009, p. 69.)
In the Reflections Series, Lichtenstein investigates the ways in which the reflective surface can both prevent and enable comprehension of the underlying subject. 'It enable[d] him to unleash a new range of inventive bravura, a heightened exploitation of spatial effects, and a new freedom in suggesting illusion' (E. Baker, 'The Glass of Fashion and the Mold of Form’ in: J. Coplans (ed.), Roy Lichtenstein, New York, 1972, p. 179). The figure is partially obscured by diagonal blocks of white filled with dots and diagonal dashes. The colour of the blue on white suggests a reflective sheen and the metallic PVC strip of collage in the center of the composition heightens this effect of light reflections.
'Mirrors are flat objects that have surfaces you can't easily see since they're always reflecting what's around them. There's no simple way to draw a mirror, so cartoonists invented dashed or diagonal lines to signify 'mirror'. Now, you see those lines and you know it means 'mirror' even though there are obviously no such lines in reality. If you put horizontal, instead of diagonal lines across the same object, it wouldn't say 'mirror'. It's a convention that we unconsciously accept’ (R. Lichtenstein quoted in: M. Kimmelman, ‘Roy Lichtenstein at the Met - Portraits, Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, The Louvre and elsewhere’, The New York Times, 31 March 1995, p. C1).