Woman with Neck Ribbon 1978

Roy Lichtenstein's "Woman with Neck Ribbon" is a painting, of course, all about that bold graphic punch. It's not so much about capturing a likeness, as it is about grabbing your attention with high-key color and repetitive marks. The material aspect is intriguing here: everything is so flat and clean, yet you know it’s paint. Lichtenstein wants us to think about how images are made and consumed. Look at the way he’s rendered the ribbon – it's a cartoon bow, so perfect and shiny, but then flattened and depersonalized. It is so simply done, but so effective! It’s like he's saying, here’s the basic unit of romance, all wrapped up in one graphic. Thinking about other artists, Lichtenstein's work makes me think of Léger, with those bold outlines, but where Léger is celebrating the machine age, Lichtenstein is poking fun at consumer culture. Ultimately, this painting is all about how we see, and how what we see shapes what we want. It's a funhouse mirror reflecting our desires.