“Brushstrokes are almost a symbol of art. The Brushstrokes paintings also resemble Abstract Expressionism. Of course visible brushstrokes in a painting convey a sense of grand gesture; but in my hands, the brushstrokes become a depiction of a grand gesture.”
—Roy LichtensteinBy combining various symbols of mark-making, including diagonals, Ben-day dots, hard-edged cartoon strokes, and realistic paintbrush strokes, Lichtenstein’s Brushstrokes series oscillates between abstraction and representation. Returning to his investigations into the concept of art making within the Pop Art movement, which he began in the mid-1960s, Lichtenstein reduced the act of painting to stylized symbols, distancing the image of the brushstroke from the association with the artists hand, and critiquing the emphasis on this gestural mark in the art historical canon. In the Brushstrokes series, an amalgamation of the artists established visual lexicon forms a body of prints depicting faces and figures. Seemingly abstract shapes and colours build form and depth that construct portraits, each with distinctive character traits and impersonations. Derived from individual collage prototypes, Lichenstein used screenprint, lithography, woodcut and waxtype to capture the varying layers and surface details of the original unique works, and in doing so challenges portraiture norms for the modern audience.
