Haystack, 1969; Screenprint in colors on C.M. Fabriano Cotone paper; Signed Roy Lichtenstein '69 in pencil lower left; Numbered 20/250 in pencil lower right; Published by Gabriele Mazzotta Editore, Milan; Size - Sheet 19" x 26", Image 14 1/4" x 17"; Frame 30 1/2" x 33"; Framed with a white 8-ply acid free mat, white wood exterior frame, and plexiglass; Catalog Raisonne: Corlett 84.
“...all my subjects are always two-dimensional or at least they come from two-dimensional sources...the painting itself became an object, a thing, like a sculpture, in its own right, not an illusion of something else. And what I’ve been trying to say all this time is similar: that even if my work looks like it depicts something, it’s essentially a flat two-dimensional image, an object.” - Roy Lichtenstein
Beginning in the summer of 1890 (and continuing through the following spring), the famed impressionist artist Claude Monet began a series of paintings that he called Haystacks. The primary subjects of the twenty-five canvas paintings in the series are stacks of hay that were located, after the season's harvest, in the fields near Monet's home in Giverny, France. The series is known for its use of repetition of subject matter in order to show differences in the perception of light. This was accomplished by painting the exact haystacks over several months during different times of day, seasons, and weather conditions. The series is considered one of Monet's most notable and greatest in his career.
Framed "Haystack," 1969 by Roy Lichtenstein
Monet's Haystack series had a profound effect on a number of artists including Camille Pissarro who stated, "These canvases breathe contentment," and Wassily Kandinsky who said, “What suddenly became clear to me was the unsuspected power of the palette, which I had not understood before and which surpassed my wildest dreams.” Even the Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein could not escape their power and beginning in 1969, worked to transform works by Claude Monet into Pop Art.
Close up of the edition number.
Roy Lichtenstein began in 1969 with Claude Monet's Haystack and Cathedral series, and then later in 1992 transformed Monet's Water Lilies series. Lichtenstein referenced other artist's work as well including, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and William DeKooning; however no artist captivated the artist's attention over such a long period of time as did Claude Monet.
For "Haystack," 1969, the subject of the work is a sole haystack created simply with a black outline filled with solid yellow. There is a black form shadow to the right of the haystack, suggesting an unseen light source to the left of the composition. The haystack stands out on a field of black Ben Day dots on a yellow ground. There are nondescript black trees and shrubs in the horizon and the sky is composed of black Ben Day dots floating on a white ground. Roy Lichtenstein has taken the referenced Claude Monet impressionist painting and stripped it of all tonal variety, light, and color strokes. The new work now reads as totally flat pure color fields, with the only variation being from the optical Ben Day dot patterns. The result is a brilliant Pop Art work derived by a masterful Impressionist composition!
Close up of the signature and the date.
