Lichtenstein: In Process

The Dixon Gallery and Gardens

Memphis, Tennesee

October 18, 2009 - January 17, 2010

www.dixon.org

"I want...[my paintings] to look as though I never corrected anything and it just came out that way. But I go through all sorts of contortions to make it look that way."
- Roy Lichtenstein

Lichtenstein in Process offers an intimate look into Pop Art icon Roy Lichtenstein’s artistic practice.
Private Collection © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Though Lichtenstein’s finished works achieve a polished, graphic style, Lichtenstein in Process proves this polish came after a series of carefully articulated preliminary compositions. “Everything is in the drawings,” Lichtenstein has said. This exhibition of 65 studies, drawings, and collages reveals the hand of the artist from the earliest stages of inspiration. Almost every work served as a study for a future painting, print, or sculpture.

Lichtenstein began with small studies to determine the composition and color scheme, then photographed and projected the studies onto a board to make a larger collage. Each stage was more highly refined than the previous one, and by the final work he eliminated as much evidence of his artistic engagement as possible. But it is Lichtenstein’s hand, struggling sometimes to evoke forms – erasing, hesitating, and correcting, that involves the viewer in his conceptual journey and makes Lichtenstein in Process such a fascinating study.

Roy Fox Lichtenstein (1923-1997) is internationally recognized as one of the leaders of the American Pop Art movement. He was born in New York and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts Degrees from Ohio State University. His work can be found in major museums and public and private collections across the globe.

Lichtenstein in Process is sponsored by the Dixon Life Member Society. This exhibition was organized by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and the Katonah Museum of Art in partnership with Dixon Gallery and Gardens.