Roy Lichtenstein

Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
Jasper Johns Foundation Benefit Auction
Private Collection, New York
Christie's, New York, November 3, 1994, lot 189
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale

This work appears in excellent condition overall. There are no apparent condition problems with this work. Under ultraviolet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. Framed
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In Roy Lichtenstein's Monolith from 1984, the artist pays tribute to his 1960s Brushstroke series and 1980s Reflections series. Lichtenstein uses his signature Comic Book style and Benday-dot technique to create a painting that is both a comment on the nature of painting and a sly tribute to his predecessors. 

The Brushstroke series from 1965-1966 depicted isolated brushstrokes as the sole subject of the work and were presented in magnified, exaggerated scale. The cartoonish rendering of a dripping, expressive brushstroke served as a parody of the omnipresent style of Abstract Expressionism during the 1950s and 1960s. Lichtenstein reinterpreted the idea of the individualistic, seemingly unique brushstrokes of the Action Painters as a mere caricature in this series. By the 1960s, what once seemed avant-garde over a decade earlier in the work of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, suddenly became stereotypical and predictable. Moreover, the highly precise and meticulous Benday-dot technique that Lichtenstein uses in this series draws a sharp contrast to the sweeping and gestural motions of Abstract Expressionism.

Beginning in 1982, Lichtenstein began a series called Reflections, which combined his earlier imagery together in new, unexpected ways and often resulted in a split canvas. Monolith is derived from this Reflections series as seen in its dual composition. On the right, Lichtenstein quotes his brushstroke style of the 1960s in a two-dimensional frame, and on the left, he depicts a wall and what appears to be an inset window. As Diane Waldman remarks, "He has depicted the Brushstroke painting and the domestic interior hanging next to each other on the same wall, setting up a disjunction between the obvious two-dimensionality of the former and the illusion of three-dimensionality in the latter." (Diane Waldman, Roy Lichtenstein, Guggenheim Museum exhibition catalogue, New York, 1993, p. 277). Monolith juxtaposes these two disparate images to create a trompe l'oeil effect, thus causing the viewer to question the reality of the picture. Lichtenstein shrewdly devised Monolith as a self-referential painting whose fundamental subject and object is the work of art.