Lamp, 1981; Woodcut on natural handmade Okawara paper; Numbered 7/30, signed Roy Lichtenstein, and dated '81 lower right; Published and printed by Tyler Graphics, Ltd., New York; Tyler Graphics Ltd. blind stamp lower right; Workshop number RL80-512 in pencil lower left verso; Catalog Raisonne: Corlett: 182; Size - Sheet 25 x 18 1/4", Frame 29 3/4 x 23"; Framed with a black wood frame, acid free mat, and plexiglass.
“Pop Art looks out into the world. It doesn't look like a painting of something, it looks like the thing itself.” - Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Fox Lichtenstein (1923-1997) was an American Pop artist, who in the 1960's along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, and others, became a leading figure in the in the emerging new Pop art movement. He was first recognized for his utilization and reappropriation of a single pane from a comic strip, that both documented and parodied the resulting composition. He used bright primary colors (red, yellow, blue, and occasionally green) that were heavily outlined in black; and he borrowed techniques from the print industry in order to produce paintings. Instead of shades of color, Lichtenstein used either close diagonal black lines or the Benday dot, a method by which primary colors of dots are printed onto a white ground and then when viewed from a distance show a density of tone. Roy Lichtenstein's artwork is collected by all major world art museums and his most expensive painting "Masterpiece," sold in January 2017 for $165 million.
Close up of the edition number, Roy Lichtenstein signature, and the 1981 date.
Close up of the Tyler Graphics Ltd. blind stamp.
Close up of the Workshop number RL80-512 in pencil lower left verso.
Lichtenstein's choice of subject matter is key to his work, and the utilization of comic strips or the choice of the most banal of everyday objects, relates back to Duchamp's concept of the readymade. The hands off approach is further enhanced by the method of commercial design and the use of screen prints, thick lines, flat planes, and obscured perspective of the picture plane.
Installation view of Lamp sculptures, with "Lamp" woodcut hanging on the wall.
"Lamp II," 1977 by Roy Lichtenstein
"Lamp" is one the finest examples of Lichtenstein's profile compositions. Initially the work was created as a painted and patinated bronze sculpture in 1977 entitled "Lamp II." The depth and shadows of the object are all placed on the same plane, as if the entire lamp and the light emitting from it had been crushed and flattened. Volume is reduced to two dimensions, and the lamp appears to be nothing more than a newspaper clipping.
Framed "Lamp," by Roy Lichtenstein.
For
"Lamp," 1981, Lichtenstein modified the structure of the bronze sculpture only slightly when he used it as inspiration for the woodcut. The colors of the composition remained the same, and only small adjustments were made for the enhancement of the image from three dimensions to only two. The subject matter of lamp in simple; a hanging green shade with an exposed lit incandescent light bulb that creates a circle of light on the floor below. The round yellow disk of light on the floor is formed by individual beams of light that Lichtenstein has illustrated by yellow, black, and white lines. All of the lines of light fall along the diameter of the yellow light circle, making the composition both flat and balanced. The result is a brilliant piece of Pop Art derived by Lichtenstein's masterful draftsmanship and great attention to form!
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