“Everything I'm doing now had its origin at the beginning of my career…Everything I do is a comment on something. It's ironic or humorous… It's meant to make the spectator wonder about it.”
—Roy LichtensteinRoy Lichtenstein's Nudes was the final major series the artist produced before his death in 1997. The nine prints consider the traditional art historical genre of the female nude through the lens of Pop Art and mark Lichtenstein's return to his iconic 1960s comic book style, consisting of Benday dot patterns, animated colors, and bold lines that together create a playful chiaroscuro. Published and printed by Tyler Graphics Ltd. in Mount Kisco, New York, Lichtenstein referenced his existing print oeuvre in Nudes, integrating motifs found in earlier works from the Reflections, Imperfect, Water Lily, and Interiors series. By expanding his palate beyond the simple primary shades that came to define his early work, Nudes exemplifies Lichtenstein’s innovative spirit, the artist continuing to refine his pioneering style in his final years.
Lichtenstein composed his nude figures from printed sources, taking comic book characters and undressing them in an intentional act of provocation, a commentary on the idealized and realistic human body. The artist explains:
“With my nudes there's so little sense of body flesh or skin tones – they're so unrealistic – that using them underscored the separation between reality and artistic convention.”
—Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein using a light box to cut a Rubylith stencil for his color relief print Roommates, from Nudes series, Tyler Graphics Ltd. artist' studio, Mount Kisco, New York, 1994, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Gift of Kenneth Tyler 2002. Image: © Kenneth Tyler Here, the domestic arena is subsumed by Lichtenstein's graphic patterning and signature pictorial language. As with many of Lichtenstein’s works, Roommates is a study in contrast through a complex compositional arrangement: the densely layered interior, inspired by home décor and furniture advertisements in the yellow pages, provides a rich contrast of rigid geometry against the undulating and volumetric form of the body. Meanwhile, the relief printing of key outlines produces distinct lines which crisply delineate the border between living things and domestic scenery. Transcending these divergent elements, the field of bright blue dots unite the composition and connect the two female figures, Lichtenstein employs these playful allusions throughout the Nudes series, drawing the viewers eye to distinctive details amidst a lively composition. By engaging with the nude as subject, Lichtenstein boldly inserts himself into a longstanding artistic lineage, newly interpreting and boldly subverting this traditional painterly genre with his Pop sensibilities.
[Left] Antonio Canova, Reclining Naiad, 1819-24, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image: © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Mrs. Joseph A. Neff Gift, in memory of Joseph A. Neff, 1970
[Right] Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Woman Reclining, to the Left, c. 1906, Art Institute of Chicago. Image: Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Carl O. Schniewind, 1936.389Provenance
Galerie Adrienne, San Francisco
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1997Literature
Mary Lee Corlett 282
103
Roommates, from Nudes Series (C. 282)
1994
Monumental relief print in colors, on Rives BFK paper, with full margins.
I. 57 1/4 x 45 in. (145.4 x 114.3 cm)
S. 64 x 51 in. (162.6 x 129.5 cm)
Signed, dated and numbered 37/40 in pencil (there were also 10 artist's proofs), published by Tyler Graphics, Ltd., Mount Kisco, New York (with their blindstamp), framed.
Estimate
$250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $317,500
editions@phillips.com
212-940-1220
Editions & Works on Paper
New York Auction 16 - 17 April
