3638 - ROY LICHTENSTEIN

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (New York City 1923–1997 New York City) Still Life with Red Jar. 1994. Colour screenprint. 105/250. Signed and dated lower right in pencil: rf Lichteinstein '94. Verso with the publisher’s stamp and handwritten workshop number: RL94-5206. Image dimensions 38.1 × 33.7 cm on Lanaquarelle watercolour paper 54.2 × 49 cm. Published by the artist and Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles. Printed by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles (with copyright blindstamp). Exhibited: Corlett, no. 291. In ‘Still Life with Red Jar’ (1994), Roy Lichtenstein turns to a genre that has been a mainstay of painting for centuries: the still life. Whereas traditional still-life painting uses finely modulated effects of light and shade to convey the textures of fruit, glass and other everyday objects, Lichtenstein draws on the distilled formal vocabulary of Pop Art. Black outlines define the objects, while Ben-Day dots and carefully placed areas of colour suggest light, volume and material qualities through graphic means. Rather than reproducing the direct appearance of things, the image draws on the aesthetics of mass-media reproduction. The circumstances in which the work was produced add a further social and political dimension. This 1994 colour screenprint, made at Gemini G.E.L., was issued as a benefit edition for the Village Center for Care and Rivington House, a New York care facility for people with AIDS that opened in 1995. The seemingly apolitical still life thus acquires a second layer of meaning: a genre traditionally devoted to the objects of everyday life becomes a vehicle for tangible social commitment against the backdrop of the American AIDS crisis. ‘Still Life with Red Jar’ therefore testifies not only to Lichtenstein’s sustained engagement with the pictorial traditions of art history, but also to a less widely known aspect of his practice: his deliberate use of printmaking in support of charitable causes. * The full tax is charged on this item marked *, i.e. VAT is charged on the sum will be refunded to Purchasers providing a validly stamped export declaration.