scorr
...in altre lingue...
...in altre lingue...
LA FOTO DELLA SETTIMANA a cura di NICOLA D'ALESSIO
Questo blog non ha finalità commerciali. I video, le immagini e i contenuti sono in alcuni casi tratti dalla Rete e pertanto sono presuntivamente ritenuti pubblici, pur restando di proprietà del rispettivo autore. In ogni caso, se qualcuno ritenesse violato un proprio diritto, è pregato di segnalarlo a questo indirizzo : rapacro@virgilio.it Si provvederà all’immediata rimozione del contenuto in questione. RR
185. MUCH MORE THAN A CARTOONIST by un'Americana a Venezia
In un intervista Roy
Lichtenstein (1923 – 1997), esponente statunitense della Pop Art, ha detto: “In quasi mezzo
secolo di carriera ho dipinto fumetti e puntini per soli due anni. Possibile
che nessuno si sia mai accorto che ho fatto altro?”. Spesso il destino degli
artisti è quello di essere ricordati per una piccola parte della propria
produzione. (RR)
There's a major
retrospective show in progress at the Art Institute of Chicago, over 160
drawings, paintings and sculptures representing the lifetime production of an
artist whose work, upon first viewing, caused Marcel Duchamp to say,
"That's what I meant. That's what I
mean." Hats off to Roy
Lichtenstein, an American king of Pop Art who will reign forever alongside Andy
Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist, and others. Roy Lichtenstein died of pneumonia in 1997 at
the age of 74, just as he was getting interested in "virtual painting,"
having already passed through myriad phases of a career which took off like a
rocket in 1961 when he broke with his early style and began displaying his own iconic
Pop Art. An instructor at the university
level who grew up in the 1920s and 30s forever interested in drawing and
science, Lichtenstein invented an easel device that could be turned in any
direction, allowing a painter to adjust his canvas upside down and sideways. By 1962, now an acclaimed figure in the world
of Pop Art, Lichtenstein was working with Magna paints which dissolve entirely
in turpentine; these paints permitted him to produce entirely flat and flawless
canvases on which no trace of his hand would be recorded, in accordance with
his wishes. And just what did this
master of seamless Pop Art record in paint?
He painted scandalously simple subjects, bringing them to new heights of
importance, aesthetic and otherwise, thanks to his painstakingly traditional
execution: commercial ads, scenes from
billboards, pictures seen in phone books, famous brands, random objects, room
interiors, female nudes, some animals, still life, landscapes, take-offs on
famous works, historical figures, and even food items, including the hotdog. In a century dominated by a growing mass
media, Lichtenstein had the vision to paint what he saw. Above all, Lichtenstein worked at his
homemade easel diligently recreating comic book frames, complete with Ben-Day
and half-tone dots, not to mention block contours. Many critics had no idea what he was doing. Lichtenstein himself said as far back as
1952, "Don't look for ideas. My
purpose in painting is to create an integrated organization of visual
elements." Maybe that's what
Duchamp meant to do, too. In any case,
Lichtenstein's second wife, Dorothy, has just said in reference to the ongoing show,
"I hope people come away realizing that he did more than some cartoon
frames." Actually, it's hard not to
appreciate Lichtenstein's flawless technique, or his tongue-in-cheek humor, or
parody. personally, I find it hard not
to chuckle at the vision of a split and buttered baked potato painted to look
like a commercial graphic against a field of solid diagonals. Ditto for the sentimental lines found in the speech
bubbles borrowed from DC Comics' "Girls' Romances" and "Secret
Hearts." Something so banale as
"Oh, Jeff. . . I love you, too. . . BUT. . ." for more than just a
split second becomes bafflingly deep. Lichtenstein
had the courage to go forth and report. Curator
James Rondeau of the Art Institute of Chicago says that Lichtenstein's work is
notable for "its insistence on the authority of the artificial." Lichtenstein also produced some paintings
recreating comic book frames dealing with war, science fiction, and mad
scientists. As artist Richard Hamilton
said back in 1968, "Reproducing a Lichtenstein is like throwing a fish
back into the water." How can one
copy what has already been copied? Lichtenstein
himself called his paintings "crystallized symbols". As for Pop Art, he termed the genre "industrial
painting" as opposed to "American" painting. Happily, for those living in Europe who want
to get close to a Lichtenstein, the retrospective show is coming in 2013, to the
Tate Modern in London (February-May) and then on to the Centre Pompidou in Paris
(July-Nov.), but first it will make a stop in Washington, D.C. after it leaves
Chicago in early September. For details,
consult: roy.artic.edu/visit Endlessly interesting, too, is the following
site: lichtensteinfoundation.org. un'Americana a Venezia
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A chi può procedere malgrado gli enigmi, si apre una via. Sottomettiti agli enigmi e a ciò che è assolutamente incomprensibile. Ci sono ponti da capogiro, sospesi su abissi di perenne profondità. Ma tu segui gli enigmi.
(Carl Gustav Jung)
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