ROY LICHTENSTEIN, (THE MELODY HAUNTS MY) REVERIE, 11 POP ARTISTS, COLOUR SERIGRAPH, EDITION OF 200, 1965
11 Pop Artists was a three part portfolio commissioned in 1965, compiling prints by emerging artists of the time who engaged in printmaking. The artworks featured in the collaboration experiment with the serial qualities and saturated colour scheme of commercial design. Roy Lichtenstein’s vibrant pop debut appears in all three volumes, signaling his meteoric rise into the realms of Post-War American art.
Reverie references Mitchell Parish's lyrics, written for the 1927 love ballad "Stardust" by Hoagy Carmichael. Accordingly, Lichtenstein presents a melancholy cartoon portrait of a blonde crooner, midsong. Reverie applies a simple, yet disruptive visual vocabulary, one characteristic of advertisements and comic strips. The print is scaled dramatically, informing the viewer about the precise techniques employed in its making.
It’s slick mass-produced aesthetic challenges the traditional artistic legacies of the 19th century, reintroducing discredited perspectives into contemporary artistic dialogue. There are no obscure meanings in this work to decode. Nonetheless, Lichtenstein’s Reverie is a conceptually complex work. Firstly, the print manifests social changes domineering 1960s America in the aftermath of the war. Moreover, Lichtenstein also stages the work as an affectionate tribute to music. Reverie is asking questions about the assumed status of jazz, as well the respective places of fine art and comics.
Find out more about 11 Pop Artists by Roy Lichtenstein.
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.
