Take it Roy...

Among other things, Art is always trying to reflect the world back at us.   To my mind, few artists have accomplished this feat with greater results than Roy Lichtenstein.

Lichtenstein seemed to like the abstract, but he also wanted to embrace popular culture.  He did this by taking single panels of comic books and bringing them to a scale that allows you to see the individual dots that make up their printing.  This sort of "mass produced," commercialized look was also a staple of Andy Warhol's work, but Lichtenstein carved out a niche of his own.  With the isolated and enlarged panels, the sections of the comic book almost became a still life, a distinct entity with an identity all its own. His work was symbolic Americana, but not schmaltzy odes to patriotism that turgid works like Rockwell's tend to be.

I read in The New York Times that there is a something of an "accidental festival" of Lichtenstein going on as his art is being shown at three separate galleries.

If you are in that area and get the chance to take in one or all of the exhibits, do so.  I would.

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