Exhibition - Roy Lichtenstein - September 15 - October 3, 1998

Roy Lichtenstein

Nudes
September 15 - October 3, 1998

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Opening Reception: Saturday, September 19, 6:30 – 8:00pm


Gagosian Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of large-scale paintings by the late artist, Roy Lichtenstein. This body of work, completed during the 1990's, solely depicts the female nude.

The highly sexualized portrayal of women has been of paramount importance to Lichtenstein's work since his earliest Pop paintings. The actual nude, however, appeared as a subject most prominently during the artist's last decade. In several instances, later paintings like Nude with Beach Ball, 1994, clearly refer to works from the 1960's, such as Girl with Ball, 1961.

Comparative pictures such as these emphasize unique characteristics of Lichtenstein's later paintings: larger areas of white, and a palette of extremely clear and vivid color. In the classic Pop paintings, the over-all Benday-dot mimicked the crude techniques of tabloid illustration. In the later paintings, the dots appear in cloud-like patches that express the effervescence of space and form.

The Nudes inhabit the ether of virtual reality more than the material world of comic books and cartoons. The intense and clear white ground and the overall impression of infinite space and "air" are in sympathy with the literal stripping of the female subjects to reveal their blatant and uncomplicated erotic availability. In these paintings, the hyper-world of virtual space opens an infinity of carnal and imaginative license and desire.



For further information, please contact the gallery.