“It started when I tried to photograph a print by Robert Rauschenberg that was under glass. But the light from a window reflected on the surface of the glass and prevented me from taking a good picture.”

—Roy Lichtenstein 

Lichtenstein’s Reflections began as a series of three paintings of the Popeye character Wimpy and evolved to reference some of the most iconic subjects of his own oeuvre. When talking about the subject, Lichtenstein mused that “of course, the reflections are just an excuse to make an abstract work, with the cartoon image being supposedly partly hidden by the reflections." After working through his ideas on canvas, Lichtenstein took this concept to the printing press at Tyler Graphics, Ltd. in Mount Kisco, New York from 1989 to 1990. As a student at Ohio State University, Lichtenstein experimented with mixing several techniques into one print – developing a sophisticated understanding of the unique mark-making potential of each medium. Taking advantage of the extensive facilities of Tyler Graphics and Ken Tyler’s innovative approach to printmaking, Reflections on Girl contains elements of lithography, screenprinting, relief and metalized collage on an impressive scale.

Playing on the dual meaning of “reflection” as something both appropriative and optical, Lichtenstein revisits his most familiar source material: comic books. Using an image found in an edition of the 1960s comic book Falling In Love, Lichtenstein’s diagonal reflections obfuscate the girl’s distraught expression, her dramatic narration (“Fire seethed through my body … fanning … spreading”) and her emotional thoughts (“H-He couldn’t kiss me that way and love someone else!”). Left with only few words that remain decipherable – including “kiss” and “love” – Lichtenstein leaves it to the viewer to concoct a narrative of what circumstances afflict our female lead. Embracing painterly notions of fragmentation through these slashing stripes, the Reflections series sees Lichtenstein explore avenues of abstraction beyond his signature Ben-Day dots.