Fish And Sky

Roy Lichtenstein’s 1967 Fish And Sky was commissioned for a tribute portfolio commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York. Lichtenstein and Castelli collaborated on various projects over the course of their respective careers.

Fish And Sky employs industrial preparatory processes and the means of mixed media to achieve a distance from traditional painting techniques. Drawing a clear parallel to Lichtenstein’s innovative Landscapes, Moonscapes And Seascapes, the work experiments with spatial interplays.

Fish And Sky reduces the attributes of a fictitious waterscape to essential compositional and pictorial elements. The work depicts a playful photo-collage split in two by a boldly outlined horizon line and a distant dotted mountain chain. The upper half of the work consists of an abstracted and hazy illustration of grey skies. Below, the artist inserts a photograph capturing an underwater scene with its own enchanting ecosystem of aquatic animals and plants.

Although the scene has been condensed into purely associative forms, the simple layout of the print carries a potent and humorous visual impact. The work manifests the artist’s boundless imagination and remarkable technical expertise. Fish and Sky ultimately conjures an alternative reality, similar to the dreamscapes of Lichtenstein’s later Surrealist series.