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Lichtenstein Expressionism

July 1–October 12, 2013
rue de Ponthieu, Paris

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Works Exhibited

Roy Lichtenstein, The White Tree, 1980 Oil and Magna on canvas, 105 ⅜ × 210 ⅜ inches (267.5 × 534.5 cm)© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, The White Tree, 1980

Oil and Magna on canvas, 105 ⅜ × 210 ⅜ inches (267.5 × 534.5 cm)
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Head, 1980 Oil and Magna on canvas, 50 × 36 inches (127 × 91.4 cm)© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Head, 1980

Oil and Magna on canvas, 50 × 36 inches (127 × 91.4 cm)
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Woman Drying Her Hair, 1980 Oil on Magna on canvas, 46 × 42 inches (116.8 × 106.7 cm)© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Woman Drying Her Hair, 1980

Oil on Magna on canvas, 46 × 42 inches (116.8 × 106.7 cm)
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Dr. Waldmann, 1980 Woodcut with embossing on Arches Cover paper, 41 ½ × 34 inches (105.4 × 86.4 cm), edition of 50© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/Gemini G.E.L

Roy Lichtenstein, Dr. Waldmann, 1980

Woodcut with embossing on Arches Cover paper, 41 ½ × 34 inches (105.4 × 86.4 cm), edition of 50
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/Gemini G.E.L

Roy Lichtenstein, Portrait of a Woman, 1979 Oil and Magna on canvas, 70 × 54 inches (177.8 × 137.2 cm)© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Portrait of a Woman, 1979

Oil and Magna on canvas, 70 × 54 inches (177.8 × 137.2 cm)
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Portrait of a Woman (study), 1979 Graphite pencil and colored pencil on paper, 8 ½ × 5 ⅞ inches (21.6 × 14.9 cm)@ Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Portrait of a Woman (study), 1979

Graphite pencil and colored pencil on paper, 8 ½ × 5 ⅞ inches (21.6 × 14.9 cm)
@ Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

About

I’m not sure exactly why I do this, but I think that it’s to establish the hardest kind of archetype that I can.
—Roy Lichtenstein

Gagosian Paris is pleased to present Lichtenstein Expressionism.

Lichtenstein’s early appropriation of the aesthetics of American popular culture made him integral to the development of Pop art. Studying the work of Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, and Paul Klee, he incorporated elements of contemporary art theory and popular print media into his painting. In 1961 he began to replicate the Benday dot system used in comics, newspapers, and billboards; this would become a signature element of his work. By mimicking this industrial method and appropriating images from high and low culture, Lichtenstein realized a broad accessibility that had not yet been achieved in contemporary art. Some of his most recognizable series evolved from pop-cultural imagery: advertisements, war comics, and pinups, as well as traditional genres such as landscape and still-life painting. Turning his attention to art history, he began exploring classical architectural motifs. Beginning in the late 1960s, defining elements of Futurism—followed by Cubism, Surrealism, and Expressionism—featured regularly in his work.

Among the styles and movements appropriated by Lichtenstein, his borrowing of Expressionist motifs—from Alexei Jawlensky’s close-up, pensive faces to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s jagged, feline figures—strikes the clearest irony. Including key paintings, sculpture, drawings, and woodcuts, this exhibition demonstrates the bold paradox that Lichtenstein posed by translating Expressionist subjects into the primary colors and Pop flatness of his signature style. Sometimes he traded the Benday dots for striping, shading, and grisaille patterns in paintings that evoke Expressionist woodcuts, going as far as to create his own woodcuts incorporating Expressionist tropes. This exploration was realized in three dimensions with the impossibly tilted painted bronze caricature Expressionist Head (1980).

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Je ne saurais dire pourquoi je fais cela, mais je pense que c’est pour établir le plus élaboré des archétypes possibles.
—Roy Lichtenstein

Gagosian Paris est heureuse de présenter l’exposition Lichtenstein: Expressionism.

Les premières appropriations de l’esthétique de la culture populaire américaine par Lichtenstein en ont fait un acteur majeur du développement du Pop art. Tout en s’inspirant des œuvres de Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, ou Paul Klee, il a incorporé dans sa peinture des éléments emblématiques de l’art contemporain mais aussi de magazines populaires. Dès 1961 il commence à utiliser la technique d’impression de points Benday utilisée dans les bandes dessinées, les journaux et les panneaux d’affichage, une technique qui est devenue la signature de son travail. En imitant cette méthode industrielle et en s’appropriant des images de haute et de basse culture, Lichtenstein a permis de rendre l’art contemporain accessible au plus grand nombre, une situation inexistante jusqu’alors. Certaines de ses séries les plus iconiques trouvent leur imagerie dans la culture Pop: les publicités, les bandes dessinées de guerre, les pinup; mais aussi dans des genres plus traditionnels comme les paysages ou les natures mortes. En se concentrant sur l’histoire de l’art, Lichtenstein a commencé à explorer des motifs architecturaux plus classiques. En effet, dès la fin des années 1960, des éléments caractéristiques du futurisme mais aussi du cubisme, du surréalisme et de l’expressionnisme apparaissent régulièrement dans son travail.

Parmi les styles et les mouvements que Lichtenstein s’est approprié, on trouve les motifs expressionnistes, le gros plan d’Alexei Jawlensky, les visages songeurs et les figures félines déchiquetées d’Ernst Ludwig Kirchner qui démontrent la plus transparente des ironies. En incluant des peintures clés, de la sculpture, des dessins et des gravures sur bois, cette exposition révèle le paradoxe audacieux posé par Lichtenstein en interprétant des sujets expressionnistes avec des couleurs primaires et la planéité caractéristique du style Pop art. Parfois il a substitué au système de points Benday, des rayures, des ombres et de la grisaille évoquant des gravures sur bois expressionnistes, allant ainsi jusqu’à créer ses propres gravures sur bois intégrant une rhétorique expressionniste. Cette exploration a été réalisée en trois dimensions avec le bronze peint: Expressionist Head (1980), invraisemblablement incliné.

Pendant un voyage à Los Angeles en 1978, Lichtenstein resta fasciné par la collection de gravures expressionnistes allemandes et les livres illustrés de l’avocat Robert Rifkind. Il a alors commencé à produire des œuvres qui empruntaient des éléments stylistiques trouvés dans des peintures expressionnistes. The White Tree (1980) évoque les paysages lyriques de Der Blaue Reiter, tandis que Dr. Waldmann (1980) rappelle le Dr. Mayer-Hermann d’Otto Dix (1926). Des petits dessins au crayon de couleur ont été utilisés comme modèles pour des gravures sur bois, un moyen d’expression favorisé par Emil Nolde et Max Pechstein, mais aussi par Dix et Kirchner. Head (1980), une gravure sur bois imprimée autant en noir qu’en sept couleurs, a été créée à partir d’un bloc de bois de bouleau que Lichtenstein a coupé à travers le grain pour imiter la surface lisse et la coloration équilibrée de ses peintures. En gardant certains effets stylistiques de l’expressionisme mais en abandonnant sa charge émotionnelle, ou encore en s’inspirant d’éléments d’autres mouvements artistiques, Lichtenstein a véritablement remis en question les différences de mouvement de l’histoire de l’art.

L’exposition Lichtenstein: Expressionism est accompagnée d’un catalogue entièrement illustré comprenant un essai par Brenda Schmahmann, une conversation entre Hans Ulrich Obrist et Mayen Beckmann, et une conversation entre Ruth Fine et Sidney B. Felsen.

Cette exposition a été préparée en étroite collaboration avec la Fondation Roy Lichtenstein et l’Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Elle coïncide avec la rétrospective itinérante consacrée à l’artiste qui aura lieu du 3 juillet au 4 novembre 2013 prochain au Centre Georges Pompidou, à Paris.

Dorothy Lichtenstein and Irving Blum stand next to each other in front of Roy Lichtenstein's studio in Southampton, New York

In Conversation
Irving Blum and Dorothy Lichtenstein

In celebration of the centenary of Roy Lichtenstein’s birth, Irving Blum and Dorothy Lichtenstein sat down to discuss the artist’s life and legacy, and the exhibition Lichtenstein Remembered curated by Blum at Gagosian, New York.

Alison McDonald, Daniel Belasco, and Scott Rothkopf next to each other in front of a live audience

In Conversation
Daniel Belasco and Scott Rothkopf on Roy Lichtenstein

Gagosian and the Art Students League of New York hosted a conversation on Roy Lichtenstein with Daniel Belasco, executive director of the Al Held Foundation, and Scott Rothkopf, senior deputy director and chief curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Organized in celebration of the centenary of the artist’s birth and moderated by Alison McDonald, chief creative officer at Gagosian, the discussion highlights multiple perspectives on Lichtenstein’s decades-long career, during which he helped originate the Pop art movement. The talk coincides with Lichtenstein Remembered, curated by Irving Blum and on view at Gagosian, New York, through October 21.

Steve Martin playing a banjo

Roy and Irving

Actor and art collector Steve Martin reflects on the friendship and professional partnership between Roy Lichtenstein and art dealer Irving Blum.

Black-and-white photograph: Donald Marron, c. 1984.

Donald Marron

Jacoba Urist profiles the legendary collector.

Alexander Calder poster for McGovern, 1972, lithograph

The Art History of Presidential Campaign Posters

Against the backdrop of the 2020 US presidential election, historian Hal Wert takes us through the artistic and political evolution of American campaign posters, from their origin in 1844 to the present. In an interview with Quarterly editor Gillian Jakab, Wert highlights an array of landmark posters and the artists who made them.

Dorothy Lichtenstein in Roy Lichtenstein’s Southampton studio. Photo by Kasia Wandycz/Paris Match via Getty Images

In Conversation
Dorothy Lichtenstein

Dorothy Lichtenstein sits down with Derek Blasberg to discuss the changes underway at the Lichtenstein Foundation, life in the 1960s, and what brought her to—and kept her in—the Hamptons.