La Sortie
La Sortie
Signed Print
Roy Lichtenstein
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90 x 134cm, Edition of 60, Woodcut
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Meaning & Analysis
Executed in 1990, La Sortie belongs to Roy Lichtenstein’s intricate Interiors. Completed towards the end of the artist’s career, the sequence was inspired by clippings and images collected from ordinary furniture advertisements. This signed woodcut in colours n museum board was manufactured as part of a limited edition of 60.
Lichtenstein’s Interiors of the early 1990s takes the ultimate image of quotidian domesticity as its main subject matter. The intricate collection is rendered in the artist’s characteristic palette of bold primary colours, delineated outlines, and Ben Day dots. Lichtenstein’s interior prints reflect the artist’s fascination with the paradoxical relationship between fine art and design. The sequence is also a unique manifestation of the varied conceptual ideas and technical skills honed by the artist throughout his career.
La Sortie is characterised by a highly stylised aesthetic. The mundane interior is transformed by Lichtenstein's use of defined contouring, regimented pattern, and block colour. The unusual composition zeroes in on a corner of a room and crops out most of the furniture. Instead, Lichtenstein focuses on a pale blue armchair, a side table, a maroon-shaded lamp that matches the curtains on the left, and a landscape painting.
The scene is scaled back and tranquil to such an extent that the beholder barely notices the female leg exiting the image on the right. Giving his work a title that in literal translation means ‘The Exit’, Lichtenstein allows the viewer to imagine how the fragmented narrative plays out beyond the confines of the picture plane.