THE TM 911 Franklin Street Weekly Newspaper Michigan City, IN 46360 Volume 28, Number 21 Thursday, May 31, 2012 Roy Lichtenstein (and Mickey Mouse) at the Art Institute Of Chicago by Barbara Stodola Look Mickey (1961), now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, launched the art movement that came to be known as Pop Art. Fifty-one years have passed since Roy Lichten- Pollock such a great artist, but they both heaped stein amplifi ed Walt Disney’s cartoon character into scorn on the Pop Art springing from the studios of the revolutionary painting that now holds pride of Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and eventually several place at the Art Institute of Chicago. Look Mickey others. introduces the 160-piece Lichtenstein retrospective Lichtenstein knew he was onto something. that opened to the public May 22, runs thru Sept. 3, “LOOK MICKEY! I’VE LANDED A BIG ONE!” then travels to Washington, D.C., London and Paris. proclaimed Donald Duck in his fi rst painting based This is a familiar story from the annals of art his- on a comic strip. The use of speech bubbles to con- tory, that yesterday’s scandals become today’s mas- vey Lichtenstein’s not-so-hidden meaning contin- terpieces. But even so, even with the wisdom and ued the next year, in the cartoonish painting he en- the hindsight that accrue after 50 years, it is hard titled Masterpiece. “Soon you’ll have all of New York to fi gure what could have been so scandalous about clamoring for your work!” the artist’s girlfriend pre- Mickey Mouse. dicted, and she was right. James Rondeau, contemporary art curator, re- The public loved it. Here at last was an art form minds us “how shocking this picture was in its they could understand, based on the familiar “low historical moment.” The year was 1961, and the art” of comic strips and mass-media advertising. It art world (centered in New York City) was buzzing was a huge send-up, a mockery of the sophistica- with the frenzy of Abstract Expressionism – or, as tion and elitism of “high art,” and everybody got the critic Harold Rosenberg termed it, Action Painting. joke. Newsweek and Time Magazines put Pop Art on Rosenberg and his chief adversary, Clement Green- their covers. berg, exchanged blows over what made Jackson Lichtenstein Continued on Page 2 THE Page 2 May 31, 2012 THE 911 Franklin Street • Michigan City, IN 46360 219/879-0088 • FAX 219/879-8070 In Case Of Emergency, Dial e-mail: News/Articles - [email protected] email: Classifieds - [email protected] http://www.thebeacher.com/ PRINTED WITH Published and Printed by TM Trademark of American Soybean Association THE BEACHER BUSINESS PRINTERS Delivered weekly, free of charge to Birch Tree Farms, Duneland Beach, Grand Beach, Hidden 911 Shores, Long Beach, Michiana Shores, Michiana MI and Shoreland Hills. The Beacher is also delivered to public places in Michigan City, New Buffalo, LaPorte and Sheridan Beach. painted the dots. Later, as work piled up, he devised a pre-cut metal screen and pushed paint through the perforations, to achieve the look of enlarged Ben-Day dots. These became his signature feature. The artist’s mockery of avant-garde painting, its theories and theorists, took many clever turns. Since critics were devoting so much discussion to brushstroke vs. spatter techniques, Lichtenstein began a series of brushstroke paintings, enlarging his own brushstroke to fi ll a large canvas, and of course fi lling in the dots. He also parodied the work of modern masters, producing dotted versions of Monet’s haystacks, Mondrian’s grids, Picasso’s cub- ist compositions. The Art Institute’s show focuses on Lichtenstein’s mature work, from his mid-30s until his death in 1997, at age 74. The pieces are arranged themati- cally rather than chronologically, refl ecting the art- Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) is featured at the Art Institute of Chicago thru Sept. 3. Lichtenstein Continued from Page 1 Lichtenstein, back in his native New York after years of studying and teaching at Ohio State Uni- versity, had found his metier, and he stuck to it. In short order he served up an amusing array of im- ages drawn from popular culture: a coffee cup, laun- dry detergent, a pair of gym shoes, a rubber tire, a hot dog, a fi zzing Alka-Seltzer. The artist’s sense of humor rubbed off last week on Art Institute staff, who treated the media to a preview luncheon – with hot dog appetizers, served on silver platters. Not only were Lichtenstein’s images based on ev- eryday objects; he took the game one step further, drawing from the reproductions found in mass-mar- ket publications rather than reality. And, as coup de grace, he painted fi gures and backgrounds in Ben- Day dots, mimicking the commercial printing pro- cess. His paintings thus became original works of art pretending to be reproductions. At fi rst he hand- His favorite cartoon characters proclaim this work a Masterpiece (1962). ist’s tendency to rework favorite themes at differ- ent stages in his career. Thus we have galleries of War And Romance, Art History, Mirrors, Black and White. The most striking images are the scenes Lich- tenstein appropriated from cartoon strips – battle scenes punctuated with toy-gun sounds WHAAM! BLAM! POW! VAROOM! – and melodramas with Roy Lichtenstein, Hot Dog With Mustard (1963) square-jawed heroes and weepy women whimper- THE May 31, 2012 Page 3 From the windows and the gardens of the Art Institute of Chicago, Lichtenstein’s cartoonish females send out their distress signals. ing “Oh Jeff I love you too, but…” With tongue-in- cheek humor, the artist elevated the stuff of adoles- cence and pulp fi ction into the heights of fi ne art. In later years, as he plumbed the depths of his invented vocabulary, Lichtenstein spent more time exploring the aesthetic potential of Ben-Day dots. He painted the female fi gure not as a cartoon char- acter, but in the classical style of reclining nudes. One entire gallery of this exhibit is devoted to Nudes, and another to Landscapes in the Chinese Style (1996-1997). Lichtenstein’s Ben-Day dots proved an effective medium for capturing the misty, tranquil effects of Chinese landscapes. His take-offs on modern painting became uncommonly powerful geometric abstractions. Lichtenstein Continued on Page 4 Newsweek commissioned Lichtenstein to do its Pop Art cover in 1966. THE Page 4 May 31, 2012 Lichtenstein Continued on Page 3 As he developed his own idiom, Lichtenstein continued focusing on his own techniques, as in Brushstroke With Spatter (1966). The Roy Lichtenstein retrospective was assem- bled by curators from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Tate Modern, London, with signifi cant sup- port from the artist’s widow, the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, and the Bank of America. It showcases pieces that became famous during the artist’s life- Roy Lichtenstein, Keds (1961) time, but also brings in lesser-known, subtler works of art. A collection of drawings demonstrates how he worked and reworked images – providing answers to the charge that Lichtenstein was “just a copyist.” Large brass sculptures show his profi ciency in yet another medium. Whaam! (1963) is in the collection of the Tate Modern. Modern Painting With Wedge shows how the artist parodied Cubism, using geometric forms, industrial imagery and his own dotted technique. The fi eld of art criticism today is less polemical, less interesting and less important than it was in mid-century New York. Still, perennial questions keep resurfacing, and the Lichtenstein exhibit of- fers an opportunity to address such issues as how to decide who is an artist, or what is an original work of art. Why do we honor Roy Lichtenstein rather than Ub Iwerks, who created Mickey Mouse in the Oh, Jeff… I Love You, Too…But…(1964) captures a melodramatic 1920s, or Floyd Gottfredson, who drew the comic moment from this character’s love life. Lichtenstein Continued on Page 6 THE May 31, 2012 Page 5 219-879-9950 www.mylongbeachvilla.com • Carpet and Hardwood Floors • Private Garages Available • Washer and Dryer in Select Apartments • Fitness Center • Heated Pool • Fully Equipped Clubhouse • Near Outlet Mall, Casinos and Lake Michigan Located at US 12 & Karwick Road Michigan City adjacent to Long Beach, Indiana THE Page 6 May 31, 2012 Lichtenstein Continued on Page 4 /RQJ%HDFK5HFUHDWLRQ 6XPPHU&DPS -RLQ\RXUIULHQGVDQGQHLJKERUV DWWKH/RQJ%HDFK6XPPHU&DPS VSRUWVJDPHVFUDIWVIXQ $JHVWR\HDUV 'DWH-XQH-XO\ 'D\V0RQGD\WKURXJK)ULGD\ 7LPH$0$0 /RFDWLRQ/RQJ%HDFK&RPPXQLW\&HQWHU )HH 5HVLGHQWV 1RQUHVLGHQWV :HHNO\UDWHVDYDLODEOH 5HVLGHQWV1RQUHVLGHQWV An untitled painting from 1959 shows the artist’s concentration on his own brushstrokes, during the period when he was painting in the Abstract Expressionist style. fi gure for 44 years? What did Lichtenstein mean 7HQQLV/HVVRQV by titling some of his paintings Perfect and others Imperfect? $JHVDQG\HDUV A few answers present themselves: the sheer magnitude of Lichtenstein’s achievements, amply 'D\V0RQGD\ :HGQHVGD\RU demonstrated in the retrospective exhibit; the con- 7XHVGD\ 7KXUVGD\ sistently high quality and fi nish of his works; the 7LPH$0 obsessiveness of this artist; the creation of new and ever-newer images, themes, messages; the indelible $JHVDQG\HDUV mark he made on the art world. There are other an- swers as well, but to fi nd them you must visit the 'D\V0RQGD\ :HGQHVGD\RU exhibit. 7XHVGD\ 7KXUVGD\ 7LPH$0 'DWH-XQH-XO\ /RFDWLRQ7HQQLV&RXUWVLQ/RQJ%HDFK )HH5HVLGHQWV 1RQ5HVLGHQWV 5HJLVWUDWLRQ)RUPVDUHDYDLODEOHDWWKH7RZQ+DOO 2ULROH7UDLO/RQJ%HDFK,1$1'RQ WKH/RQJ%HDFK7RZQ:HEVLWHDWORQJEHDFKLQRUJ XQGHU3DUNV 5HFUHDWLRQ $Q\TXHVWLRQVSOHDVH FDOO Landscape in Fog (1996) applies the Ben-Day dot technique to Lichtenstein’s version of a Chinese landscape painting.