Thinking of him 1963

Roy Lichtenstein made this large painting using oil and Magna paint, and those dots! The bright yellow background is interrupted by the drama of this lady’s face. A big tear rolls down her cheek. It's as if Lichtenstein took a still from a comic book and blew it up, those dots mimicking a printing screen. I wonder what he was thinking when he chose this image? Did he see something in it that spoke to him? Maybe he liked the simplicity of the lines, the boldness of the colors. Look at how the flat blocks of color and thick black outlines are balanced with the tiny red dots. And how that cloud of thought floats next to her head. What’s she thinking? Who is he? We are left to wonder. Painters are always having a conversation with each other, and with the world. We are constantly taking and giving, riffing off of each other's ideas, sometimes answering and sometimes questioning. It's a beautiful, messy, ongoing dialogue.