Though I have always been one to try, I am not much of an artist! I do appreciate art however, and have found that with age I grow more and more interested in a world that once seemed quite alien to me. In particular, I have found that occasionally I find pieces that move me, in the way that music or a chance meeting can, and so I guess what I'm saying is even if you don't think art is your thing, give it a try. Discovery tends only to come with exploration.
Living in London, we are really spoilt when it comes to art.
Most recently I have visited the "Lichtenstein: A Retrospective" at the Tate.
If you're not sure of the name, Roy Lichtenstein's works will probably help ring some bells - an American 'pop' artist of recent times (1923 - 1997), he was catapulted to fame by his signature comic-strip panels.
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| Look Mickey, 1961 - my favourite of the exhibition |
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| Hopeless (1963) - I like the way the capitalised text and bold highlighting make this kind of cartoon all the more amusing when out of context. It is also so recognisably "Lichtenstein". |
Pop art, in case you're not entirely sure (which I wasn't!), was an art movement / period, that began in the '50s in Britain and the US. The idea was to take objects and images from popular culture (mainly from television, films, magazines and advertising) as well as everyday objects and put them in a different context giving them a new light and sometimes a new meaning entirely. Lichtenstein mainly did this with cartoons and comic strips, but also used everyday items, and in his later stages actually used pre-existing artwork as his central theme for a new piece. He even used some of his own earlier works as subjects for later pieces, like the Donald duck in the piece below which we have already seen.
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| Artist’s Studio “Look Mickey”’ (1973) - this work features lots of items that Lichtenstein had already previously painted separately such as the mirror on the left, the Look Mickey painting, and the fruit on the floor |
The exhibition was a real eye-opener for me. Though I was familiar with some of Lichtenstein's more famous works, I had not known that actually these well-known pictures were in reality much larger than the little images I had seen, and to be appreciated you need to see them the way in which they were painted. Only then do you notice all the little details that Lichtenstein carefully incorporated to his works in order to make them completely perfect and effortless. This differs to I think a lot of classical paintings, which though impressive, can still be appreciated when they are sized-down.
What I found quite startling too was that even by today's standards, his works still look original, witty and thoroughly modern.
My favourite room of the exhibit focusses on works featuring Chinese landscapes. The Oriental scenery is clear to the viewer but the techniques he has used make the pieces look almost digital in effect - to the point that actually they don't translate so well on a computer screen, as you can see below. Can you spot the boater? Once you have, all of a sudden the wide expanse of black dots on pale blue have a meaning. It's little ideas like this so masterfully put together that make Lichtenstein the talent that he is celebrated for.
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| Landscape with Boat (1996) - try covering up the boater and see what you make of the scene without him. The dots, which feature heavily in Lichtenstein's works, are known as Ben-day dots after the illustrator who invented the printing technique. |
I won't spoil any more of the surprises in store but hope you will enjoy the exhibit as much as I did... twice!
Lichtenstein: A Retrospective is at the Tate Modern until 27th May 2013
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/lichtenstein
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