Roy Lichtenstein
(October 27th 1923 – September 29th 1997)
Roy Lichtenstein is a huge favourite of mine. Because of my love of graphic novels and trashy comic books, I find his work inspiring. His defined black lines and emphasis on the enlarged dots within his work, I find remarkable.
Roy Lichtenstein is an American artist who was born in New York City on October 27th in 1923.
Lichtenstein was inspired by comic strips and advertisements, which moulded him into becoming one of the leading artist’s of the new Pop Art movement in the 1960’s.
His works are parodied from American popular culture and the art world itself.
Following artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, his work started having characteristics of Abstract Expressionism and popular American culture. Instead of abstract paintings that Pollock and others had done in the past, Lichtenstein drew inspiration directly from advertising and comic books. He mimicked his borrowed sources down to a stenciled process, which imitated mechanical prints used for commercial/industry art.
“When I have used cartoon images, I’ve used them ironically, to raise the question: Why would anyone want to do this with modern painting?”
– Roy Lichtenstein
Richard Hamilton.
Article from http://www.independent.co.uk
He credited his lifelong interest in James Joyce with dispelling any inhibitions about experimenting with different forms of expression. He explained: “Joyce let me into an enormous mystery in a way, which was that you don’t have to think about style, that every chapter in Ulysses is in a different style. He is an absolute master of language, and some chapters are written in a progression of styles.”
Hamilton connected in some ways with swinging London, meeting the Beatles and Mick Jagger. A drugs bust in which Jagger and an art dealer were arrested was famously depicted by Hamilton in the 1967 work “Swingeing London”. He was also commissioned to help design the album The Beatles, usually referred to as “The White Album”. He recalled Paul McCartney giving him three tea chests full of photographs for use in a collage inside the album sleeve.
Richard Hamilton: Painter and collagist widely regarded as the creator of Pop Art.
Article from http://www.independent.co.uk
Although Richard Hamilton never achieved the celebrity of Andy Warhol or Damien Hirst he had a major impact on modern art, influencing them and many others after earning for himself the title of the father of Pop Art. There was more to him than that, though: in his long career he indulged in many different themes, producing work which was displayed over decades in innumerable exhibitions. His development took him through painting to printmaking, sculpture to typography and collage.
Hamilton was often socially subversive, most famously with his collage, the brilliantly titled “Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?”
Made up mostly of cuttings from magazines, its theme was American consumer culture. It featured a male bodybuilder and a naked woman in the incongruous setting of a living room, surrounded by posters and household appliances in what was described as “a semi-ironic look at the mass-market imagery of the post-war age.” Such techniques would later come to be regarded as commonplace, but its novelty meant it was hailed as “the first genuine work of pop.”
This is work from the ‘Clowns’ concept I had, where some people have phobias of clowns (Coulrophobia). I then researched into the history of clowns and how they have transformed through each decade.
Once I had done the research I wanted to work with this idea. So I did some ink drawings, here is two out of about six I originally did. Again…. the problem I faced from feedback I had from peers and tutors, was that I was drifting away from my original concept of ‘Pop Art’.
The problem I had in my studio practice was that, I had too many ideas instead of sticking to one and seeing it through to the end. This caused me to struggle and loose my focus with what it was I wanted to do and what road to follow.
So I left this concept and moved forward with my practice…..
If art is deemed as “representative of our inner self”, which of your styles would “fit” this description and why (or not as the case may be)
“POP art!!!!!! Growing up with Atari, Commodore 54, the first Mac (dare I say it), Amstrad, 8-Bit arcades, anaglyph 3D, Transformers, Speed Racer, Scooby-Doo, Nintendo hand helds, Sega, BMX, skateboarding, Star Wars, Buck Rogers, Batman, Wonder Woman etc etc…
These all had a lasting effect on me and were my escape as a child. As an adult these items remind me of simpler times: times of fun, exploration, no fear and no boundaries.
Being somewhat of a collector of Pop culture as well as an artist enables me to re-live that simpler life and embrace my inner child.”
