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Rating: 
Summary: An art appreciation lesson on Roy Lichtenstein's Pop Art
Review: My friends consider it ironic, for lack of a better word, that I am have never really taken a liking to the pop art of Roy Lichtenstein. After all, I have thousands of comic books and Lichtenstein's most famous paintings are ideas he got from comics books, not to mention bubble-gum wrappers, newspaper ads, and even the yellow pages of the phone book. Certainly Lichtenstein's carefully painted images of comic-book scenes and everyday objects are fun, and I have nothing against Benday dots, but I have never gotten beyond the idea that his work was "okay." Perhaps the fact that I have several framed illustrations by Barry Windsor-Smith around the house explains why my favorite Lichtenstein painting is "Washington Crossing the Delaware I," which is the most atypical one included in this juvenile biography by Mike Venezia (reminds me more of Paul Klee, who is my favorite 20th century artist). Of course there is also the irony of cartoonist Venezia illustrating key moments in the life of his subject, and this may well be the only volume in the Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artist's series where I like Venezia's drawings more than the featured great artist. Venezia does his usually solid job of explaining where his subject fits into the history of art, in this case coming out of the Pop Art movement along with Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Venezia's best point is when he suggests Lichtenstein's popularity might have something to do with the fundamental fact that they were a lot easier to understand than the Abstract Expressionist art of Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning. In fact, Lichtenstein is present as attacking the easy-to-copy style, which he felt, was being overused. This underscores the strength of Venezia's series, that it is as much about art history and art appreciation as it is artistic biography. Too bad I am running out of books in this series to read. I guess I am just going to have to find a way of getting down to the Chicago Art Museum to continue my education.
Rating:
Summary: An art appreciation lesson on Roy Lichtenstein's Pop Art
Review: My friends consider it ironic, for lack of a better word, that I am have never really taken a liking to the pop art of Roy Lichtenstein. After all, I have thousands of comic books and Lichtenstein's most famous paintings are ideas he got from comics books, not to mention bubble-gum wrappers, newspaper ads, and even the yellow pages of the phone book. Certainly Lichtenstein's carefully painted images of comic-book scenes and everyday objects are fun, and I have nothing against Benday dots, but I have never gotten beyond the idea that his work was "okay." Perhaps the fact that I have several framed illustrations by Barry Windsor-Smith around the house explains why my favorite Lichtenstein painting is "Washington Crossing the Delaware I," which is the most atypical one included in this juvenile biography by Mike Venezia (reminds me more of Paul Klee, who is my favorite 20th century artist). Of course there is also the irony of cartoonist Venezia illustrating key moments in the life of his subject, and this may well be the only volume in the Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artist's series where I like Venezia's drawings more than the featured great artist. Venezia does his usually solid job of explaining where his subject fits into the history of art, in this case coming out of the Pop Art movement along with Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Venezia's best point is when he suggests Lichtenstein's popularity might have something to do with the fundamental fact that they were a lot easier to understand than the Abstract Expressionist art of Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning. In fact, Lichtenstein is present as attacking the easy-to-copy style, which he felt, was being overused. This underscores the strength of Venezia's series, that it is as much about art history and art appreciation as it is artistic biography. Too bad I am running out of books in this series to read. I guess I am just going to have to find a way of getting down to the Chicago Art Museum to continue my education.
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