Accession Number
1997/1.128

Title
Seascape (I), from the portfolio "New York Ten" (C.34)

Artist(s)
Roy Lichtenstein

Artist Nationality
American (North American)

Object Creation Date
1964; published 1965

Medium & Support
screenprint on translucent Rowlux

Dimensions
16 15/16 in. x 21 7/8 in. ( 43.02 cm x 55.56 cm )

Credit Line
Gift of the Lannan Foundation in Honor of the Pelham Family

Label copy
With Andy Warhol, artist Roy Lichtenstein is considered one of the founders of the art movement called Pop Art, so-named because of its borrowings from popular culture. Born in New York, Lichtenstein originally studied with Reginald Marsh before attending the Ohio State University. After obtaining his degree, he worked as a commercial artist and designer and decorated store windows. In the late 1950s, he was working in the Abstract Expressionist style but this gave way in the very early 1960s to a style drawn from commercial art, comics, and advertisements. In 1962, he had his first solo exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery, in New York, a gallery also representing Andy Warhol and several others.
Seascape (I), from this early period in his career, demonstrates Lichtenstein’s use of the Benday dots, borrowed from comic book illustrations. In this case, he has applied this comic book vocabulary to one of the long-standing visual traditions in the history of art: the landscape or seascape. Completely reinterpreted, Lichtenstein’s use of this style underscores his investigation into the conventions of visual representation. He would go on to apply this same style to other genres of art history: Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and even Chinese landscape paintings. "I want my painting to look as if it has been programmed," Lichtenstein said. "I want to hide the record of my hand."

Sean M. Ulmer, University Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, for "A Matter of Degree: Abstraction in Twentieth-Century Art," November 10, 2001 - January 27, 2002

Subject matter
Demonstrates Lichtenstein’s use of Ben Day dots, a technique borrowed from comic book illustrations, which he applied to depict a seascape.

Physical Description
Colored lithograph using Ben Day dots in blue to depict an abstract seascape.

Primary Object Classification
Print

Primary Object Type
color print

Additional Object Classification(s)
Print

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
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Keywords
abstraction
seascapes