ROY LICHTENSTEIN, KNOCK, KNOCK POSTER, RELIEF PRINT, EDITION OF 100, 1975
Artificiality, parody, and appropriation quickly became key components of pop pioneer Roy Lichtenstein’s creative oeuvre. The artist’s signature style elevated various banal sources in his practice, thereby challenging notions and conventions of high art. Emphasising the object qualities of his artworks, Lichtenstein mimicked the look of commercial press production to the point that his own brushstrokes disappeared.
Having achieved international recognition and success as early as the 1960s, Lichtenstein turned away from his usual comic book subjects and began experimenting with new topics. His iconic Knock, Knock Poster from 1975 is a monochrome object print depicting an ordinary item. In line with On and Spray Can of the mid-1960s, the artist here contrasts the trivial and the serious; the mechanical versus the handmade. The poster was originally created to promote the exhibition "Dessins de Lichtenstein" ("Drawings of Lichtenstein") held at the Centre National d'Art Contemporain in Paris, France.
True to the exhibition's focus, Lichtenstein created a stripped-down, hand-drawn comic-style image depicting a door being knocked at. "Knock Knock" is an onomatopoeic phrase that mimics the sound of knocking. The work’s title also functions as a clever acronym for the exhibition venue (CNAC). This wordplay pun perfectly showcases Lichtenstein's wry sense of humour within his signature pop style.
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ABOUT ROY LICHTENSTEIN
Born in Manhattan in 1923, Roy Lichtenstein was a leading figure in the Pop Art movement during the second half of the 20th century. His distinctive artistic style is inspired by the visual language of consumerism and advertising that pervaded American popular culture at the time, and his work recalls a society of widespread commercialism that has remained powerfully relevant to this day. Learn more about Roy Lichtenstein.
