Roy Lichtenstein: Kunst als Motiv

Museum Ludwig
Cologne, Germany

July 1 – October 3, 2010



 

   

The Ben-Day dots of Roy Lichtenstein have become world-famous. Using motifs from comic strips and the consumer world, Lichtenstein created paintings made up of dots and coloured surfaces. At the exhibition in Museum Ludwig you can now discover a completely different side to his art. In around 100 exhibits, predominantly large-sized paintings as well as accompanying drawings and sculptures, we can follow how he explored various styles from art history, ranging from Expressionism and Futurism to the Bauhaus, Art Déco and even east Asian landscape painting. Works and the stylistic hall-marks of such artist heroes as Monet, Matisse, Mondrian and Dalí appear as themes and set elements, which Lichtenstein rephrases in his own imagery with a mixture of irony and mastery. Even Picasso gets cast in a totally new light, becoming a pseudo-comic that reflects the clichéd image of the artist. The impressive paintings from the series "Brushstrokes" show precisely that - brushstrokes, but massively enlarged and stylised. They testify to Lichtenstein's searching reflections on painting and may be seen as the key works in the exhibition.