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拍品專文
During the 1960s, when Abstract Expressionism had achieved wide public acceptance in America, Roy Lichtenstein elected to challenge the existing movement. By depicting trivial subject matter derived from the commercial media without a trace of painterly brushwork, Lichtenstein negated the aesthetic theories of the preceding generation and declared his artistic independence. His early attachment to the comic strip frame — composed of simplified lines, form, and color — was perfectly suited to these new investigations. The enlargement of details within bold outlines, a dramatic crop- ping of images, a limited range of color, and especially the distinctive use of benday dots (the screen pattern used in commercial repro- duction) — all became trademarks of Lichtenstein's idiosyncratic style. This transformation of a popular American idiom into fine art helped to define a new stylistic classification called Pop Art.
In his early work as a printmaker, Lichtenstein had used woodcut, etching, and lithography in a traditional manner. When he introduced commercial graphic effects into his paintings, he temporarily stopped making prints. Confronted with the problem of how to combine anew-found “graphic” style with conventional printmaking techniques without becoming merely a comic strip illustrator, Lichtenstein settled eventually upon offset lithography and silkscreen as appropriate techniques: both could achieve the hard mechanical surfaces, the clean outlines, and intense hues that he found aesthetically pleasing. In addition, both media involved collaboration with professional printers, who could neatly execute a print under his direction but with the notable absence of the artist's “hand.”
Lichtenstein’s interest in Expressionist subject matter first appeared in his 1950s pre-Pop American Indian woodcuts, a theme he readdressed during 1979 and 1980. Ultimately, however, it is the paintings and woodcuts of the German Expressionist artists who worked between 1906 and 1920 that served as the source for his explorations.
Reclining Nude is one of a group of seven “German Expressionist’’ woodcuts printed and published by the Gemini workshop. As a group, the images reflect subjects common to German Expressionism — portrait heads and nudes — although Lichtenstein conveys the emotional content in a contemporary manner, giving it a sleek, impersonal character. The exaggeratedly sharp angles, jagged fragments, and overdramatized gestures and expresssions add an ironic twist to the splintered images of earlier German examples. Only an occasional glimpse of the close-grained surface with its embossed patches suggests the medium that is the oldest printmaking technique.
In these woodcuts Lichtenstein did not employ the customary benday dots, but used irregular contour lines and parallel stripes that define block-like unworked areas. The colors in Reclining Nude—beige, cadmium yellow, blue, and black, with the key block in blue—represent a new palette, and the optical mixture suggests a further range of olive greens and purples.
Barbara Stern Shapiro, The Modern Art of the Print: Selections from the Collection of Lois and Michael Torf, p.108
In his early work as a printmaker, Lichtenstein had used woodcut, etching, and lithography in a traditional manner. When he introduced commercial graphic effects into his paintings, he temporarily stopped making prints. Confronted with the problem of how to combine anew-found “graphic” style with conventional printmaking techniques without becoming merely a comic strip illustrator, Lichtenstein settled eventually upon offset lithography and silkscreen as appropriate techniques: both could achieve the hard mechanical surfaces, the clean outlines, and intense hues that he found aesthetically pleasing. In addition, both media involved collaboration with professional printers, who could neatly execute a print under his direction but with the notable absence of the artist's “hand.”
Lichtenstein’s interest in Expressionist subject matter first appeared in his 1950s pre-Pop American Indian woodcuts, a theme he readdressed during 1979 and 1980. Ultimately, however, it is the paintings and woodcuts of the German Expressionist artists who worked between 1906 and 1920 that served as the source for his explorations.
Reclining Nude is one of a group of seven “German Expressionist’’ woodcuts printed and published by the Gemini workshop. As a group, the images reflect subjects common to German Expressionism — portrait heads and nudes — although Lichtenstein conveys the emotional content in a contemporary manner, giving it a sleek, impersonal character. The exaggeratedly sharp angles, jagged fragments, and overdramatized gestures and expresssions add an ironic twist to the splintered images of earlier German examples. Only an occasional glimpse of the close-grained surface with its embossed patches suggests the medium that is the oldest printmaking technique.
In these woodcuts Lichtenstein did not employ the customary benday dots, but used irregular contour lines and parallel stripes that define block-like unworked areas. The colors in Reclining Nude—beige, cadmium yellow, blue, and black, with the key block in blue—represent a new palette, and the optical mixture suggests a further range of olive greens and purples.
Barbara Stern Shapiro, The Modern Art of the Print: Selections from the Collection of Lois and Michael Torf, p.108