My sister always takes a day off work for her birthday, and we usually try to do something special. On this occasion, we went to Tate Modern to see 'Lichtenstein, a Retrospective'. Amazingly enough, photographs are not forbidden, so I was able to take quite a few.
I'm familiar with some of Roy Lichtenstein's work, not the least because of going to an earlier exhibition at the Tate some years ago, but I saw things I hadn't seen before. Like most people I suppose, I was most aware of the paintings inspired by comic strips and advertising, and very little else.
I hadn't been at all aware of any sculptures. Apparently, he became at one time fascinated by Art Deco, and the exhibition featured several in highly polished brass.
According to the exhibition booklet, he was also interested in art about art, and there are several paintings which 'through appropriation, stylisation or parody... engage with ... styles such as Impressionism, futurism or surrealism, or target the paintings of Picasso, Matisse or Mondrian.' In some cases he took landmark paintings and created his own version. These below are obviously based on Monet's series on Rouen Cathedral.
The one below references Matisse, 'Still Life with Goldfish', as well as one of Lichtenstein's own paintings, 'Golf Ball'.
I rather liked this one - though I prefer the Matisse one!
Some of the paintings were quite enormous - the exhibition described them as monumental. This one is from his 'Artist's Studio' series, which filled a whole wall.
I think this one was one of those I liked most.
After the paintings, we paused for a cream tea, and then admired the view. It wasn't a very nice day, but we still had a marvellous view of St Paul's Cathedral, and the wonderful bark of the silver birches.
This was not my best photo of St Paul's, but I wanted to include the trees. And if Roy Lichtenstein can reference other artists' works in his own, this is my reference to Gustav Klimt - see http://www.klimtgallery.org/Farmhouse-With-Birches.html
Although it was quite a dull day, it was reasonably pleasant and good to be outside so we walked back to London Bridge station along beside the Thames. This is the beautiful Globe Theatre.
We'd both like to go again, but I can't face sitting in the cold in the evening. When is summer coming, I wonder.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment