CRAK! CRASH! POP ART COMES TO BRISBANE
Roy Lichtenstein: Pop remix
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Art Museum, Brisbane, presents Roy Lichtenstein: Pop remix, a National Gallery of Australia exhibition from 30 June to 26 August.
A central figure in the 1960s American Pop Art movement, Roy Lichtenstein famously borrowed characteristics from comic strips and advertisements, including single-frame melodramas and Ben- Day dot imagery.
“Roy Lichtenstein’s work is instantly recognisable. His
bright, brash paintings and prints have entered our cultural consciousness as icons of the Pop Art movement,” said Ron Radford AM, Director, National Gallery of Australia.
Lichtenstein developed a central creative principle that became a potent formula: to identify cultural clichés and repackage them as monumental remixes.
The exhibition traces the artist’s print projects from the 1950s to the 1990s, exploring how the artist appropriated, transformed and remixed art historical sources including Claude Monet’s Impressionism and Max Ernst’s Surrealism.
Roy Lichtenstein Crak! 1963-64 colour lithograph National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1996 © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Licensed by Viscopy.
“Lichtenstein reinterpreted the work of these artistic giants and significant art movements using an instantly recognisable graphic aesthetic, effectively branding himself with a signature Lichtenstein-look to secure his place alongside those masters he so admired,” said Jaklyn Babington, National Gallery of Australia exhibition curator.
“Slick, intelligent and humorous, the exhibition features Lichtenstein’s best known Pop prints, including his remixes of romance and war comics, brushstrokes and nude girls,” said Babington.
The exhibition of 80 works on paper and multiples is drawn from the National Gallery of Australia’s Kenneth Tyler Print Collection and includes a newly restored and digitised, rare, candid photography and film component.
“Pop remix offers a fascinating insight into the collaborative working methods Lichtenstein applied to create a number of his best known printed series,” said Megan Williams, Acting Senior Curator, QUT Art Museum.
“QUT Art Museum has a large collection of international works, so it’s fitting that we’ll be hosting this National Gallery of Australia exhibition of such an iconic international artist,” said Williams.
OPENING NIGHT: Friday 29 June, 6.00 for 6.30pm
Roy Lichtenstein: Pop remix curator’s tour, Saturday 30 June, 12pm-1pm, QUT Art Museum
