Roy Lichtenstein, Reflections on Girl 1990. ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Collection 2015. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/DACS 2024.
Roy Lichtenstein was known in the 1960s for his paintings of comic strips. In these later prints, he deliberately hides his trademark imagery under abstract patterns
Lichtenstein was a US pop artist, inspired by mass-produced images. He came to prominence with paintings featuring ‘Ben-Day dots’. These mechanically printed spots were used to colour newspaper and magazine pictures. His work presents the paradox of machine-printed imagery that has actually been carefully made by hand.
This room brings together five works from Lichtenstein’s Reflections print series. To make them he combined different printing techniques with collage. Each features one of his earlier paintings partly obscured under bands of colour. He came up with the idea when he was trying to photograph another artist’s work through glass. Lichtenstein said: ‘It portrays a painting under glass. It is framed and the glass is preventing you from seeing the painting. Of course, the reflections are just an excuse to make an abstract work, with the cartoon image being supposedly partly hidden by the reflections.’
Pop artists quoted from, and reused, imagery found in popular culture. The Reflections series can be seen as Lichtenstein’s wry comment on these techniques, as he reuses and re-presents his own past work.
Tate Modern
Natalie Bell Building Level 4 East
Room 5
24 April 2023 – 1 December 2024
Free
Roy Lichtenstein, Reflections on The Scream 1990
Reflections on The Scream 1990 is from a group of seven Reflections prints which Lichtenstein worked on at Tyler Graphics in Mount Kisco, New York during 1989 and 1990. These prints are recorded in the artist’s catalogue raisonné and described as combining ‘lithography, screenprint, and relief with collage and embossing. Swan Engraving, Bridgeport, Connecticut, processed the magnesium plates.’ (Corlett 1994, pp.221–6). Tate’s copies are part of the sixteen artist’s proofs aside from the edition of sixty-eight. The other prints in the series are: Reflections on Hair 1990 (Tate P12127), Reflections on Brushstrokes 1990 (Tate P12128), Reflections on Crash 1990 (Tate AL00368), Reflections on Girl 1990 (Tate AL00369), Reflections on Minerva 1990 (Tate AL00370) and Reflections on Conversation 1990 (Tate AL00367). In all the Reflection prints, the image is partly obscured by semi-abstract blocks of colour and pattern which simulate reflected light, as if the image is seen behind glass or reflected in another surface. The idea was developed by Lichtenstein in a group of paintings he started in 1988 and which he continued to work on until 1993. Speaking of the paintings series in 1995, the artist explained:
1/5
artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein, Reflections on Crash 1990
Reflections on Crash 1990 is from a group of seven Reflections prints which Lichtenstein worked on at Tyler Graphics in Mount Kisco, New York during 1989 and 1990. These prints are recorded in the artist’s catalogue raisonné and described as combining ‘lithography, screenprint, and relief with collage and embossing. Swan Engraving, Bridgeport, Connecticut, processed the magnesium plates.’ (Corlett 1994, pp.221–6). Tate’s copies are part of the sixteen artist’s proofs aside from the edition of sixty-eight. The other prints in the series are: Reflections on Hair 1990 (Tate P12127), Reflections on Brushstrokes 1990 (Tate P12128), Reflections on Conversation 1990 (Tate AL00367), Reflections on Girl 1990 (Tate AL00369), Reflections on Minerva 1990 (Tate AL00370) and Reflections on The Scream 1990 (Tate AL00371). In all the Reflection prints, the image is partly obscured by semi-abstract blocks of colour and pattern which simulate reflected light, as if the image is seen behind glass or reflected in another surface. The idea was developed by Lichtenstein in a group of paintings he started in 1988 and which he continued to work on until 1993. Speaking of the paintings series in 1995, the artist explained:
2/5
artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein, Reflections on Conversation 1990
Reflections on Conversation 1990 is from a group of seven Reflections prints which Lichtenstein worked on at Tyler Graphics in Mount Kisco, New York during 1989 and 1990. These prints are recorded in the artist’s catalogue raisonné and described as combining ‘lithography, screenprint, and relief with collage and embossing. Swan Engraving, Bridgeport, Connecticut, processed the magnesium plates.’ (Corlett 1994, pp.221–6). Tate’s copies are part of the sixteen artist’s proofs aside from the edition of sixty-eight. The other prints in the series are: Reflections on Hair 1990 (Tate P12127), Reflections on Brushstrokes 1990 (Tate P12128), Reflections on Crash 1990 (Tate AL00368), Reflections on Girl 1990 (Tate AL00369), Reflections on Minerva 1990 (Tate AL00370) and Reflections on The Scream 1990 (Tate AL00371). In all the Reflection prints, the image is partly obscured by semi-abstract blocks of colour and pattern which simulate reflected light, as if the image is seen behind glass or reflected in another surface. The idea was developed by Lichtenstein in a group of paintings he started in 1988 and which he continued to work on until 1993. Speaking of the paintings series in 1995, the artist explained:
3/5
artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein, Reflections on Girl 1990
Reflections on Girl 1990 is from a group of seven Reflections prints which Lichtenstein worked on at Tyler Graphics in Mount Kisco, New York during 1989 and 1990. These prints are recorded in the artist’s catalogue raisonné and described as combining ‘lithography, screenprint, and relief with collage and embossing. Swan Engraving, Bridgeport, Connecticut, processed the magnesium plates.’ (Corlett 1994, pp.221–6). Tate’s copies are part of the sixteen artist’s proofs aside from the edition of sixty-eight. The other prints in the series are: Reflections on Hair 1990 (Tate P12127), Reflections on Brushstrokes 1990 (Tate P12128), Reflections on Crash 1990 (Tate AL00368), Reflections on Conversation 1990 (Tate AL00367), Reflections on Minerva 1990 (Tate AL00370) and Reflections on The Scream 1990 (Tate AL00371). In all the Reflection prints, the image is partly obscured by semi-abstract blocks of colour and pattern which simulate reflected light, as if the image is seen behind glass or reflected in another surface. The idea was developed by Lichtenstein in a group of paintings he started in 1988 and which he continued to work on until 1993. Speaking of the paintings series in 1995, the artist explained:
4/5
artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein, Reflections on Minerva 1990
Reflections on Minerva 1990 is from a group of seven Reflections prints which Lichtenstein worked on at Tyler Graphics in Mount Kisco, New York during 1989 and 1990. These prints are recorded in the artist’s catalogue raisonné and described as combining ‘lithography, screenprint, and relief with collage and embossing. Swan Engraving, Bridgeport, Connecticut, processed the magnesium plates.’ (Corlett 1994, pp.221–6). Tate’s copies are part of the sixteen artist’s proofs aside from the edition of sixty-eight. The other prints in the series are: Reflections on Hair 1990 (Tate P12127), Reflections on Brushstrokes 1990 (Tate P12128), Reflections on Crash 1990 (Tate AL00368), Reflections on Girl 1990 (Tate AL00369), Reflections on Conversation 1990 (Tate AL00367) and Reflections on The Scream 1990 (Tate AL00371). In all the Reflection prints, the image is partly obscured by semi-abstract blocks of colour and pattern which simulate reflected light, as if the image is seen behind glass or reflected in another surface. The idea was developed by Lichtenstein in a group of paintings he started in 1988 and which he continued to work on until 1993. Speaking of the paintings series in 1995, the artist explained:
5/5
artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Roy Lichtenstein
Art in this room
Roy Lichtenstein
Reflections on The Scream
1990
Roy Lichtenstein
Reflections on Crash
1990
Roy Lichtenstein
Reflections on Conversation
1990
Roy Lichtenstein
Reflections on Girl
1990
Roy Lichtenstein
Reflections on Minerva
1990