Description
The exhibition in Wolfsburg, Germany focuses on Roy Lichtenstein’s “Mirror Paintings” and the “Reflections,” which belong to a thematic complex that has continually engaged Lichtenstein throughout his decades of work.
A fundamental aspect of Roy Lichtenstein’s work since the dawn of the Pop era in 1961 is his persistent, almost obsessive engagement with the aesthetic canons of classical European modernism. From Picasso, Matisse, and Léger to Mondrian, Dalí, and Magritte, there is hardly an artist or style he has not commented on, paraphrased, and ironically questioned. While his work prominently incorporates the trivial aesthetics of comics and advertising, presenting his critique of America’s mass culture and its naive belief in the salvific power of consumption in a manner both direct and subtle, he is equally intensely engaged with the fundamental questions of modernism in its formal, aesthetic, and ideological manifestations.
The Mirror series, which Lichtenstein began in 1969, represents a complex intellectual discourse by the artist on the nature of reality and illusion. Inspired by brochures and advertisements from various glass and mirror manufacturers in his neighborhood, he began to explore the depiction of mirrors. In the cheaply produced brochures, the mirrors had become mere symbols of mirrors. Simplified graphical representations showed mirrors in ornate gold frames that appeared predominantly bourgeois, if not aristocratic, transforming them into abstract images.
Tags: #RoyLichtenstein #PopArt #ModernArt #ComicArt #BenDayDots #ArtIcon #AmericanArtist #20thCenturyArt #ArtHistory #LichtensteinStyle #Wham #DrowningGirl #ArtCollector #MuseumArt #ArtExhibition #ContemporaryArt #FineArt #VisualArt #ArtLovers #IconicArt











