About the artwork
This edition is a reproduction of Roy Lichtenstein's 1964 work "as i opened fire", now in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. It is based on Jerry Grandenetti's comic strips from Wingmate of Doom, published in All American Men of War, issue 90 (March-April 1962) by DC Comics. True to his iconic style, Lichtenstein enlarges, simplifies and reworks these images with his famous flat tints of bright colors (red, yellow, blue), thick black strokes and Benday screen dots, techniques borrowed from commercial printing.On all three panels, we see a rapid sequence of military actions. The sequential editing gives the work an almost cinematic rhythm. As I Opened Fire is emblematic of Lichtenstein's approach: a work that questions the authenticity, repetition and spectacularization of images in modern culture. Even today, As I Opened Fire is seen as a visual manifesto on the way modernity waters down war and tragedy through the mass media.
Expert opinion
Along with "Whaam!" (his other monumental war work), this is considered the culmination of Roy Lichtenstein's work on the theme of war through comics.
About the artist
Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) is one of the leading figures of American Pop Art. After classical training at the Beaux-Arts and a brief academic career, he exploded onto the art scene in the early 1960s with canvases inspired by advertising, comic strips and popular culture. His style is immediately recognizable: systematic use of the Benday grid, primary colors and ironic treatment of popular images. Lichtenstein seeks to question the boundary between "noble art" and mass culture, blurring the traditional hierarchies of art history. Throughout his career, he also worked on other classical genres (nudes, landscapes, still lifes), which he hijacked with the same graphic treatment, creating a body of work that was both coherent and critical. Roy Lichtenstein has had major exhibitions throughout his career, including two major retrospectives at the Guggenheim in 1969 and 1993, and one at the Centre Pompidou in 2013.
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