Bull Head II
Bull Head II
Signed Mixed Media
Roy Lichtenstein
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54 x 71cm, Edition of 100, Mixed Media
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Meaning & Analysis
Roy Lichtenstein’s prominent status as a Pop Art icon was cemented in the 1960s. Returning to the compositional devices he first applied in a six part sequence titled Bull Profile series, the artist presents three compositions in his Bull Head series of 1973.
Lichtenstein creates a work that is slick, mass-produced in feel, and disruptive of the line that divides high art from low brow.
Bull Head II, constituting phase two of the simplification process explored by the artist, notably abstracts the image of the bull. The animal’s horns and muzzle are encoded with the help of geometrical forms and colours, mirroring the layout of Bull IIIfrom the Bulls series. The work presents the essential, rather than particular qualities of the animal. Elements alluding to grass and the sky above the pasture have been added to the background, using dark green and light blue block colouring.
In Bull Head series, Lichtenstein illustrates a shift from representational to abstract, interrogating the artistic claim of the modernist era, which asserts that universal truth is revealed through the distillation of forms. The artist in this series parodies this belief by calling into question the presumed distinction between realistic and abstract depictions.