Painting: Whaam!
Artist: Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997)
Year Painted: 1963
Medium: acrylic paint on canvas
Background Information on the artist:
Roy Lichtenstein was born in New York City in 1923. He grew up in an upper- middle class family.
Roy was always interested in drawing, mechanics and natural science. He pored over science magazines, and happened to live near the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. He would visit the museum every chance he could. He loved exploring the great halls, looking at Egyptian mummies, animals and plants, dinosaurs and bugs.
Television hadn’t been invented yet, so at home Roy would listen to radio programs. He loved the Science Fiction/Superhero ones, like Flash Gordon. Roy also LOVED comics and comic books.
He became interested in art as a hobby because it wasn’t offered at his school. He took lessons on his own. After college, Roy became an art teacher. This way he could earn a living while he was creating his own paintings.
One day for fun, Roy made a large painting of a funny cartoon with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in it. It looked a lot like a section from a comic strip. He made his colors flat and smooth without any brush strokes, he wanted it to look like a machine had printed it. He even included something called “Benday Dots” which are little printer dots that a machine uses for color. Roy, however, painted his dots by hand. When he was finished, he loved what he had created. He brought some similar pieces to an art dealer, who also loved them, and the rest is history!
Roy is one of the few artists that became famous during his lifetime. In fact, Pop Artists such as Roy and Andy Warhol were huge celebrities in the 1960s. Roy was an extremely prolific artist and his paintings are still very desirable. By the time Roy died in 1997, he had become one of the world’s best-loved artists.
Background Information on Pop Art:
Pop Art is short for Popular Art in which images from advertising, movies and popular culture are depicted in the artwork. (Think Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe and Campbell Soup Cans). Up until the 1960s modern art was Abstract Expressionism, like Jackson Pollock where the paint is splattered across a canvas in order to “show an innermost feeling.” Lichtenstein wanted art to be relaxed and fun again. He helped start this whole new style of art called “Pop Art.”
Pop Art appealed to people for its easily recognized subject matter and its bright colors which echoed what was happening in fashion and music during the psychedelic 60s. Pop artists made paintings that were big, bright and bold, celebrating this new, hip, modern way of life.
About the Painting:
“Whaam!” is Lichtenstein’s most famous and important piece. It is one of the earliest forms of Pop Art. The actual painting is more than 12-feet wide and almost 6-feet long. The colors are simple, flat, and eye-catching. Everything is outlined in black, so the images stand out clearly. Most of his early pop-art works are relatively close, but not exact copies of comic book panels.
This painting is comprised of two frames, mimicking a comic strip. The inspiration was a comic-book picture from “All American Men of War” published in 1962 by DC comics. The painting shows a rocket being fired by a fighter plane towards an enemy plane along with a red-yellow explosion.
The picture is simplified, broken down into simple, primary colors, dark red, yellow, white, black, and gray. Some areas are painted solid colors and some are Benday dots. Roy uses solid colors for emphasis. Our eye is drawn to the explosion: the focal point of the work by this use of solid paint and bright color. The word WHAAM! also tells us where Roy wanted the viewer to look.
The perspective is essentially eye-level with the fighter pilot. The artist is inviting the viewer to be a true part of the action, not just an observer. Roy wants us to cheer for the fighter pilot on the left. He leaves no question as to what the pilot is doing. He paints a yellow thought bubble over the jet. The pilot sounds calm, cool and collected. He is not afraid, nor does he question his mission. He is a true war hero, unwavering in the face of danger and adversity. The message is stated as simply as the painting. Good triumphs over evil. Right destroys Wrong.
The painting captures the height of the battle. We assume that the fighter jets have been engaged in combat for a while. We arrive at the very second the battle ends. We can imagine the rush of adrenaline and fierce speed in which the pilots are engaged. Just ask the kids: It’s an exciting painting.
Discussion Questions for the kids:
Why do you think the artist painted the painting in two panels? To make it look like a comic book.
Why did the artist paint the panels so large when comic books are so small? To make more of an impact on the viewer. The action seems bigger and more intense when the artwork is larger.
How do Benday Dots work? Walk up close to the painting. How do the dots look? Very visible.
Now, walk away from the painting, what happens to the dots? They blend together and look like softer, solid colors.
We can tell the two panels work together. What unites them? The plane is pointed in the direction of the explosion and you can see the plane has fired in the direction of the other fighter jet.
What if there was a third and fourth panel. What do you think might happen in the next panel? Maybe the fighter plane flies home because he’s completed the mission, or really, anything is correct.
Take away one of the panels. How does that change the composition of the painting? The “story” is now incomplete. Either we don’t know at what the jet is firing, or we don’t know what caused the explosion.
Look closely at the painting, and then close your eyes.
What kind of sounds would you hear? The whoosh of the plane, the loud, explosion, then silence maybe…..
Let’s re-read the yellow word bubble. What are some other things the word panel might read to have the same meaning? For example, “I knew I had finally caught him, and I would be victorious…” or whatever
What if we change the words in the bubble? For example, “Nervously I grasped the trigger, with my eyes closed I pressed the fire control…”
How does that change the feel of the painting? The jet pilot is now anxious and hesitant, no longer strong and confident.
Do you like this painting? Why or why not? Would you want it hanging in your home?
If you were a Pop Artist today, what current popular figures could be used today? Derek Jeter, Eli Manning, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, One Direction, Harry Potter, etc.