Cubist Cello
Cubist Cello
Signed Print
Roy Lichtenstein
£18,000-£27,000
$35,000-$50,000 Value Indicator
$35,000-$50,000 Value Indicator
¥170,000-¥250,000 Value Indicator
€21,000-€30,000 Value Indicator
$190,000-$280,000 Value Indicator
¥3,720,000-¥5,580,000 Value Indicator
$24,000-$35,000 Value Indicator
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129 x 100cm, Edition of 75, Screenprint
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Meaning & Analysis
Cubist Cello of 1997 is Roy Lichtenstein’s final tribute to his life-long passion for music. The artist’s enthusiasm for vocal and instrumental sound fueled a number of his projects. See his pre-pop paintings of the 1950s and his Compositions of the mid-1990s as notable examples.
Cubist Cello integrates the artist’s characteristic pop elements with the pictorial language of Cubism. This artwork was created to benefit the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s American Friends initiative.
Lichtenstein centers a hovering pastel coloured cello in the middle of the print. The instrument is underscored by figurative elements poking out from behind its curved body. The work is self-referential, featuring a wide array of subject matter from Lichtenstein’s oeuvre. For instance, it integrates the cattle from his 1970s Bulls series and his famous cartoon heroine of the 1960s.
Fixing his musical portrait on a patchwork of geometric shapes adorned by Ben Day dots, Lichtenstein amplifies his illustrated collage through bold contours and thick lines. Creating a symphonic mixture of colour and form, the print unites painterly gestures with the ready-made qualities of printmaking. Lichtenstein’s detailed composition explores ways in which the various historical and cultural traditions defining music can be translated onto a canvas.