Roy Lichtenstein

So, in the past I had heard of Pop art, and I knew of a few works of art from it, including works of art by Roy Lichtenstein, even though I didn't know his name or anything about him (aside from the use of comic book imagery in his art.) The image that I have decided to research is Thinking Nude, State 1, 1994 http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images/160529/672973.jpg there is another form of this print just called Thinking Nude that has far less color in it http://roy-lichtenstein-paintings.painting-reproductions.com/image/paintings/Thinking%20nude.jpg I'm not sure if the first image is actually stage 1 of making the final print or not. And for the purposes of this post I will just be discussing Thinking Nude and not State 1.

In the Academic Journals from the library website I was unable to find information on Lichtenstein's Nude series, but on one website I was able to find a small amount of information on the subject. He made his first collection of Nudes in 1993 and used references from 1960's comic book caricatures instead of live models to create the female form. This series is similar to his other pop art works because it keeps a strict color palette, as well a two-dimensional space within the print. Around most of the nudes in this series are either geometric or curvilinear forms to compare and contrast to the female body. http://www.guyhepner.com/pieces/roy-lichtenstein-nudes-thinking-nude

One thing that struck me about the Thinking Nude is the subtle variations of line that separate her body from everything else within the composition. There are very minute changes that keep her outline separate from the outline of the pillow behind her and the blanket under her, even though the blanket and the pillow have the same color of outline and pattern in them as her body. You can even see the pillow continue lower and appear underneath her armpit, it's lined up perfectly so that the viewer can establish the connection to the rest of the pillow.

Through flat color, and absence of color, you can tell what the other objects in the print are as well. The brown rectangle in the back is a door, and the pink triangle is a bit of the floor. The tan shape in the back right corner is a dresser, and on top of it is a bowl of red and yellow fruit, along with a mirror and a drinking glass of some sort, that are pure white with only a black outline. The only object with color that I cannot recognize is the darker blue shape on the bed with her.

The bits of color on her are fascinating too, with the very light yellow used to fill in part of her hair and then the black and red dots used to describe the rest of it and keep it so that the viewer can recognize that her hair is in front of the pillow. The red on her lips is also really interesting because it's on top of the dots describing her face, I really like how it just pops into the foreground. The bits of color used to describe the blankets that she's laying on is a nice touch as well, and doesn't overpower the whole scene.

Lichtenstein did a great job portraying the female figure as well in this print. He was able to use foreshortening correctly to establish that her legs are going back into the background and to show that her right elbow is the shape that is the farthest in the foreground by giving it the thickest actual line in the whole print.

All together this style just works perfectly for me to show off the female form, and I'd have to say after looking at this print, and others by Lichtenstein, he's slowling becoming one of my new top favorite artists.

(p.s. I just looked and saw that everyone in the group so far is doing Lichtenstein lol he's popular)