Two Nudes State I

Two Nudes, State I depicts a pair of women rendered as the embodiment of the highly aestheticised versions of feminine physicality that permeated mainstream media and the late-80s consumerist society. One of the women is lying down, arms covering her face, making it invisible to the viewer. Sitting at the edge of the bed, the other woman leans over the naked body and touches the female back in what resembles a gesture of care and affection.

In rendering the intimate scene that makes the subject matter of Two Nudes, State I, Lichtenstein goes beyond the palette of primary colours that became the trademark of his earlier works. Instead of black contours, female bodies and interior surrounding them are outlined with thick blue lines. Irregularly shaped Ben-Day dots, Lichtenstein’s signature pattern produced with the use of hand-cut stencils, cover female bodies and parts of the background, evoking the exuberant world of comic strips and advertisements that fascinated the artist.

Influenced by Picasso’s bold experiments with the simplified representation of the female body, Lichtenstein’s Nudes series explores femininity to establish a dialogue with the themes of desire, voyeurism, and commodification. Provocative and yet distant from natural human expression, the feminine figure of Lichtenstein’s late prints encapsulates the burden of contemporary gender conceptions.