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Lot Essay
This work will be included in the Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.
Part of Roy Lichtenstein's select group of black-and white drawings, Brushstroke is the first of only two highly finished drawings of brushstrokes that the artist completed during the early part of his career. Resolutely figurative, yet at the same time intriguingly abstract, the bold rendition of the most painterly of gestures is one of Lichtenstein's singularly striking drawings. Its remarkable simplicity combined with its unparalleled graphic quality is the result of the artist's unique investigations into the visual language of representation. Not a study, but a complete work in its own right, Brushstroke joins the canon of the artist's early master drawings executed between 1961 and 1968, which the artist described as drawings "just to be drawings" (R. Lichtenstein quoted in I. Deveraux, "Baked Potatoes, Hot Dogs and Girls' Romances: Roy Lichtenstein's Master Drawings," in Roy Lichtenstein: The Black and White Drawings 1961-68, exh. cat., Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 2011, p. 15). The first investigation of this motif, Brushstroke represents Lichtenstein's initial countermove against Abstract Expressionist gestures, in which he affirms his ironic intent in "characterizing or caricaturing a brushstroke. The very nature of a brushstroke is anathema to outlining and filling in as used in cartoons" (R. Lichtenstein, quoted in ibid., p. 180). The only other graphite rendition of this motif, Brushstrokes, 1966-68, is housed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1987.
Brushstroke is one of the most sophisticated of the artist's black-and-white drawn images. Its bold, dramatic lines and use of iconic Benday dots is far advanced from earlier works such as Airplane and Knock Knock of 1961, whose simple lines lack the subtle touches provided by the Benday dots and the sensuously expressive depictions of paint splashes that distinguish this work. It marks the triumphal culmination of the artist's reductive practice of representing an image in terms of the symbolic language of its formal composition. These visual elements, which mimic the mechanical processes by which strong profiles and volumes are rendered, derive from the advertising and graphic imagery that proliferated during the economic boom of the post-war years. As Bernice Rose, the Curator of Lichtenstein's major drawings retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in 1987 notes "the early black-and-white drawings form a coherent group, in which Lichtenstein pursues and develops the idea of a graphic style, quite apart from its use in painting" (B. Rose quoted by I. Deveraux, ibid., p. 18).
Ironically, for such an accomplished drawing, Lichtenstein's first attempts to draw what he saw as the cliché of a brushstroke were not to his liking: "I've made some little sketches," he said "but most of the shapes look like wooden signs rather than brushstrokes, you know how the edges are zigzagged and they've got marks through them which look more like weathered wood" (R. Lichtenstein, quoted by I. Deveraux, ibid., p. 180). He rejected these early attempts at drawing directly from memory in favor of creating a physical brushstroke made with ink or magna on acetate. As Rose describes, he found that the acetate repelled the wet medium, forcing it to "recoil" back into itself and become almost its own imitation, in effect, extending the notion of a copy of a copy to the material itself. He then projected this image onto a canvas, and it was only after he solved the problem on canvas that he was able to draw a brushstroke to his satisfaction.
Part of Roy Lichtenstein's select group of black-and white drawings, Brushstroke is the first of only two highly finished drawings of brushstrokes that the artist completed during the early part of his career. Resolutely figurative, yet at the same time intriguingly abstract, the bold rendition of the most painterly of gestures is one of Lichtenstein's singularly striking drawings. Its remarkable simplicity combined with its unparalleled graphic quality is the result of the artist's unique investigations into the visual language of representation. Not a study, but a complete work in its own right, Brushstroke joins the canon of the artist's early master drawings executed between 1961 and 1968, which the artist described as drawings "just to be drawings" (R. Lichtenstein quoted in I. Deveraux, "Baked Potatoes, Hot Dogs and Girls' Romances: Roy Lichtenstein's Master Drawings," in Roy Lichtenstein: The Black and White Drawings 1961-68, exh. cat., Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 2011, p. 15). The first investigation of this motif, Brushstroke represents Lichtenstein's initial countermove against Abstract Expressionist gestures, in which he affirms his ironic intent in "characterizing or caricaturing a brushstroke. The very nature of a brushstroke is anathema to outlining and filling in as used in cartoons" (R. Lichtenstein, quoted in ibid., p. 180). The only other graphite rendition of this motif, Brushstrokes, 1966-68, is housed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1987.
Brushstroke is one of the most sophisticated of the artist's black-and-white drawn images. Its bold, dramatic lines and use of iconic Benday dots is far advanced from earlier works such as Airplane and Knock Knock of 1961, whose simple lines lack the subtle touches provided by the Benday dots and the sensuously expressive depictions of paint splashes that distinguish this work. It marks the triumphal culmination of the artist's reductive practice of representing an image in terms of the symbolic language of its formal composition. These visual elements, which mimic the mechanical processes by which strong profiles and volumes are rendered, derive from the advertising and graphic imagery that proliferated during the economic boom of the post-war years. As Bernice Rose, the Curator of Lichtenstein's major drawings retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in 1987 notes "the early black-and-white drawings form a coherent group, in which Lichtenstein pursues and develops the idea of a graphic style, quite apart from its use in painting" (B. Rose quoted by I. Deveraux, ibid., p. 18).
Ironically, for such an accomplished drawing, Lichtenstein's first attempts to draw what he saw as the cliché of a brushstroke were not to his liking: "I've made some little sketches," he said "but most of the shapes look like wooden signs rather than brushstrokes, you know how the edges are zigzagged and they've got marks through them which look more like weathered wood" (R. Lichtenstein, quoted by I. Deveraux, ibid., p. 180). He rejected these early attempts at drawing directly from memory in favor of creating a physical brushstroke made with ink or magna on acetate. As Rose describes, he found that the acetate repelled the wet medium, forcing it to "recoil" back into itself and become almost its own imitation, in effect, extending the notion of a copy of a copy to the material itself. He then projected this image onto a canvas, and it was only after he solved the problem on canvas that he was able to draw a brushstroke to his satisfaction.