Mid Modern blog post

Roy Lichtenstein

This artist specialized in pop art and some of his pieces are the quintessential examples of pop art. He is specifically known for his paintings that are based off of comic books. Here are two popular pieces of his.

Drowning girl was inspired by the comic book Run for Love and taken from a splash page in the comic. He changed a few of the elements of this piece such as the name of the girl’s boyfriend from Mal to Brad. He also omitted a piece of text that mentioned cramps.

The second piece Whaam! he gained inspiration from war comics and this specific piece belongs to a series of war paintings he was working on. This piece relates to his own experience from serving in the army during World War II.

What relates these two pieces is clearly the comic book inspiration and colors. I think that this style is really striking and I like the bold black lines used, it really is distinctive along with the muted color palettes used in both paintings. What I really think is unique about his paintings is the use of one or two really bright colors that contrast with the rest of the painting. The girl’s bright blue hair really pops out as well as the explosion’s red and yellow. I could definitely see both of these paintings being featured in a mod designed house that has mostly black and white furnishings. I probably would not own these pieces myself since they don’t really fit my style.

Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley was a British artist who specialized in op art, and she was a prominent artist of this movement. Her art is inspired by the visual forces of nature.

I love that these two pieces are so different from each other nd I think that it shows that Riley is a quite diverse artist that can work in many different styles. What stands out to me now with this paintings as well as when I was looking through her other works is the color pallet that she uses. They both utilize pink and blue which is quite unique. I definitely would enjoy having Pale Landscape in my own collection, it reminds me New Mexico which was a memorable state I visited when my family was moving from Florida to Alaska.

Chuck Close

Chuck Close was an influential artist of the photorealism movement. The majority of his works were portraits of people. What really attracts me to these two pieces is how they display humans in an imperfect manner. I have been thinking about models in the fashion industry and why certain people are chosen to model high end fashion brands. What I find interesting is that runway models for brands like Gucci tend to have defining features that doesn’t fit in with normal beauty norms society have in place but something about people who have these defining features like a crooked nose or large ears are really eye catching and I would say the same concept applies to these paintings. I really enjoy these pieces and I think it would be cool to see them displayed as like public murals would be really cool.

Citations

“Bridget Riley.” 323 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy, http://www.artsy.net/artist/bridget-riley.

“Bridget Riley (B. 1931) , Chant 2.” , Chant 2 | Christie’s, http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/bridget-riley-b-1931-chant-2-5766927-details.aspx.

“Chuck Close: Work.” Chuck Close | Work, chuckclose.com/work_timeline006.html.Stamberg, Susan.

“One Dot At A Time, Lichtenstein Made Art Pop.” NPR, NPR, 15 Oct. 2012, http://www.npr.org/2012/10/15/162807890/one-dot-at-a-time-lichtenstein-made-art-pop.Tate.

“’Whaam!’, Roy Lichtenstein, 1963.” Tate, 1 Jan. 1963, http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lichtenstein-whaam-t00897.