Roy Lichtenstein American, 1923-1997

Modern Head Relief, 1970

Brass edition relief sculpture

24 x 18 in
61 x 46 cm

Edition 85/100

Incised signed, dated '70' and numbered on a plaque affixed to the reverse (there were also 5 trial proofs), published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles (with their stamp).

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This beautiful brass relief sculpture is dated 1970 and is numbered 85/100. Our version is mounted in a frame and signed on a plaque affixed to the reverse. In this work Lichtenstein looked back at arte moderne of the 1930s, specifically the ‘Heads’ painted by Russian constructivist Alexei Jawlensky, in which the language of Cubism was reinterpeted to the forms of the machine age. Lichtenstein said about this work “ "What interested me was - ‘what in the world a modern head could be about' - I mean to make a man look as if it’s been made by an engineering draftsman." Accordingly, he recreated an arte moderne painting as an engineered and machined work in solid brass. Lichtenstein is a central figure in the 20th century art historical canon, most famous for his early Pop Art work, and accordingly his work is represented in the collections of major museums worldwide, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate, London; and Centre Pompidou, Paris. An example of this work is illustrated in M-L. Corlett, The prints of Roy Lichtenstein, a Catalogue Raisonne, 1948-1993, New York, 1994, No. 20, p. 33, and also in the online Catalogue Raisonne. One of the most influential and innovative American artists of the post-war period, Roy Lichtenstein ushered in the prominence of Pop Art through his high-impact representations of consumer imagery, common entertainment, and the accoutrements of contemporary life rendered in the Ben-Day dots of contemporary comic strips. Central to Lichtenstein’s practice was parody, which enabled the artist to engage with often-disparaged commercial source imagery from an ironic distance as he considered the nature of the banal and probed the boundaries of what fine art could be.

This beautiful brass relief sculpture is from an edition of 100, dated 1970. Our version is mounted in a frame and signed on a plaque affixed to the reverse. Lichtenstein looked back to Russian painter Alexej Jawlensky and his series of 'Constructivist Heads' from the 1930s, some of which had been on view at the Pasadena Art Museum where Lichtenstein saw them. Lichtenstein remarked that “What interested me was - ‘what in the world a modern head could be about' - I mean to make a man look as if it’s been made by an engineering draftsman" (Lichtenstein, 'Roy Lichtenstein, Penguin Random House, 2009, p 45).

Lichtenstein wanted to make a man look like a machine, someone dehumanized by mechanization. He saw artists including Jawlensky and Fernand Léger taking on the forms of earlier Cubists like Braque and Picasso and making them more l for a new technological age. This also informed his famous Ben-Day dot paintings, inspired by comic strips which he described as relying on 'machine thinking.' The heads of his comic strip figures are not entirely dissimilar to the present work, as they too are predicated by mechanization and what he called 'the economics of printing' (Lichtenstein, 'Roy Lichtenstein, Penguin Random House, 2009, p 46).

One of the most significant postwar American artists, Lichtenstein is most famous for his defining contributions to Pop Art. Lichtenstein often engaged with the commercial imagery of his time, once thought too lowbrow for a serious art form like painting. From his vantage point as an artist, Lichtenstein engaged ironically with the banal clichés of commercial commodification. Using these forms, he questioned art history and engaged with the works of other art historical masters, like Jawlensky or Claude Monet. Along with Warhol, Lichtenstein was interested in seriality and reproduction; his works (and the high prices commanded) undermine Walter Benjamin's insistence that reproductions lack the "presence in time and space, [and] unique existence" which contributes to the "aura" imbued in an original, work making it superior to copies (Walter Benjamin, 'Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' in Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendht, Mariner Books, 2019, pg. 169).

As a significant contributor to American Pop Art, Lichtenstein's work is represented in major museums collections worldwide, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate, London; and Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Literature

Gemini 247.
ML. Corlett, The prints of Roy Lichtenstein, a Catalog Raisonne, 1948-1993, New York, 1994, No. 20, p. 33 (another illustrated example). This work is listed in the artist's online catalog raisonne.