Roy Lichtenstein: Prints from the Collection of John & Kimiko Powers

September 13, 1998, to January 3, 1999 | Old Hundred

Roy Lichtenstein: Prints from the Collection of John & Kimiko Powers

This exhibition is a selection of Lichtenstein’s multiple-editioned works from 1964 to 1996, chosen from the collection of John and Kimiko Powers, who have assembled one of the most significant private collections of the artist’s work. With the passing of Roy Lichtenstein in 1997, the art world lost not only one of the most significant pioneers of Pop art, but also an artist who over the last forty years has had a profound influence on the nature of contemporary printmaking.

Through his participation in the so-called "print-renaissance" of the early 1960s, he contributed not only many new formal and technical innovations, but also helped elevate printmaking as a whole to a more central role in artistic practice. It can be argued that for Lichtenstein printmaking was his most important area of artistic endeavor, providing not only a material sensibility that was closely aligned with his vernacular sources, but also creating an arena where the artist was more apt to experiment.

If one looks closely at Lichtenstein's work as a while, and particularly his edition works, it become readily apparent that besides the obvious referencing of modernist styles and popular imagery, the artist was engaged in a wry game of self-appropriation, constantly quoting from his early work. As Lichtenstein stated in 1985: "Everything I'm doing now had it origin at the beginning of my career. I'm not removed from how it all started. Everything I do is a comment on something. It's ironic or humorous. When I do a still life, it's a comment on the act of doing a still life. I', composing a still life, but also commenting on the composition of a still life." Through this rigorously self-award approach to art-making, he succeeded in condensing the graphic sensibility of the first half of the twentieth century into a personal style that is not only immediately recognizable, but also profoundly revealing about the fundamental nature of representation itself.

This exhibition is a selection of Lichtenstein's multiple-editioned works from 1964 to 1996, chosen from the collection of John and Kimiko Powers, who have assembled one of the most significant private collections of the artist's work. The Powers, besides collecting Lichtenstein's prints in depth, also became lifelong friends of the artist and his wife, Dorothy. I am grateful to John and Kimikp for not only generously lending from their collection to the exhibition, but also for their patience with the myriad of details that were necessary to accomplish this project.

Curated by Richard Klein