Modern Art I 1996

Roy Lichtenstein made this print, Modern Art I, using screenprint with lithograph. This print really messes with how we see, doesn't it? The Ben-Day dots, those little printed circles, act like a kind of visual code. Lichtenstein takes something flat, a comic book style, and blows it up, forcing you to see the process. It’s like he’s saying, “Hey, look at how this image is constructed, dot by dot, line by line." The colors are bold and graphic, almost like a commercial sign. Everything is so crisp and clean. But look at how he uses those dots to create shading on the face. They are a deliberate reminder of the process, a kind of painterly mark-making. The way he breaks down the face into geometric forms makes me think a bit of Picasso's cubist portraits. There's a similar fragmentation, but instead of revealing multiple perspectives, Lichtenstein exposes the mechanics of representation. He encourages us to question what we see, and how we see it.