Lichtenstein Exhibitioin

Last week I went to the Lichtenstein exhibition at Tate Modern. I must admit that I'm not particularly attracted to Lichtenstein's war comic images but prior to visiting the exhibition I watched a documentary and went to an informative talk at the V&A Museum. By the time I went to the exhibition I was much more knowledgeable and was quite looking forward to it

 

 

Whenever I go around an exhibition I am always thinking about how the work in the exhibition relates to my own work and this exhibition was no exception. If there was one thing I was inspired by it was his ability to break things down into simple shapes and patterns. I spent some time looking at how he had achieved this in his 'Tire' picture. I don't find tyres inspiring in the least but it made me consider whether this approach could work in my own work.   

 

I really liked this cubist style picture 'The Red Horseman'. Again it was the shapes within the picture that I liked and how they read together as a whole. I would quite like to have a go at abstracting images and drawing in the cubist style but really have no idea where to begin. If anyone can point to any reference points, I'd be very grateful. I think, perhaps naively, that if I can go through a simple exercise to get me started then I could take it on from there.

Then there were his landscapes and I liked the simplicity of them and could see how they relate to the printing that I do.

 

It was interesting seeing how he moved from portrait to a completely abstract picture in his 'Portrait Triptych'. Could I use this approach with my cotton reels. Could be worth a try. 

My prior research into Lichtenstein made the exhibition much more enjoyable and I'm glad that I went and it has left me with plenty to think about.