Modern Head #4 1970

Roy Lichtenstein made ‘Modern Head #4’, and what strikes me is the way he's playing with flatness and form. It’s almost like he’s deconstructing a face into these graphic shapes and patterns. Take a look at the Ben-Day dots, for example. They’re so mechanical, so printed, and yet, they give the piece a kind of texture. Then you've got these blocks of gold and these crisp, clean lines. It's this combination of industrial and handmade, flat and dimensional, that really gets me going. The way he uses colour here, so bold and flat, it's like he's saying, “Hey, I’m not trying to trick you into thinking this is real, this is a painting!” I am reminded of some of Picabia’s later graphic portraits, but where Picabia goes wild, Lichtenstein stays cool. And I love that tension. It makes you think about what a picture really is, and what it can be.