| Crak! | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Roy Lichtenstein |
| Year | 1963 |
| Medium | Lithograph |
| Movement | Pop art |
| Dimensions | 48.9 cm× 70.2 cm(19.25 in× 27.625 in) |
Crak! (sometimes Crack!) is a 1963 pop art lithograph by Roy Lichtenstein in his comic book style of using Ben-Day dots and a text balloon. It was used in marketing materials for one of Lichtenstein's early shows. It is one of several of his works related to military art and monocular vision.
When Lichtenstein had his first solo show at The Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City in February 1962, it sold out before opening. The exhibition included Engagement Ring , Blam and The Refrigerator. [1] The show ran from February 10 through March 3, 1962. After a west coast exhibition at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles from April 1–27, 1963, Lichtenstein had his second solo exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery from September 28 – October 24, 1963 that included Whaam! , Drowning Girl , Torpedo...Los! , Baseball Manager , In the Car , and Conversation. [2] [3]
Named for its onomatopoeic graphic text, Crak! is an offset lithograph on lightweight, white wove paper. [4] According to the Lichtenstein Foundation, it was a marketing poster that "was published to announce Lichtenstein's exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery, September 28 [–] October 24, 1963." The foundation notes that the work is sometimes dated 1964 with numbered impressions that are inscribed reflecting that date. [5]
The screen-printed poster image presents a beret-clad woman shooting a rifle. Lichtenstein recomposed the comic book source — from a story written by Bob Haney and illustrated by Jack Abel [6] in Star Spangled War Stories #102 (Apr./May 1962) — by replacing the mound of sand with what seems to be a stack of sandbags. He also isolated the figure by cropping the foreground and background elements. [7]
According to art historian Michael Lobel, monocular vision is the motif in which the subject is "depicted frontally in such a way as to expose both eyes to the viewer, yet which has one eye closed or otherwise obscured" and not those in which the subject is depicted in profile. [8] The main subject has one eye opened and one eye closed, which relates to a pervasive theme of monocularity in Lichtenstein's art that Lobel was the first to analyze, which also includes works such as Torpedo...Los! and I Can See the Whole Room...and There's Nobody in It! The work also is related to Lichtenstein's theme of "machine and embodied vision" as exhibited in works such as Okay Hot-Shot, Okay! , Bratatat! , and Jet Pilot . [7]
Roy Fox Lichtenstein was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. His work defined the premise of pop art through parody. Inspired by the comic strip, Lichtenstein produced precise compositions that documented while they parodied, often in a tongue-in-cheek manner. His work was influenced by popular advertising and the comic book style. His artwork was considered to be "disruptive". He described pop art as "not 'American' painting but actually industrial painting". His paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City.
Events from the year 1963 in art.
Whaam! is a 1963 diptych painting by the American artist Roy Lichtenstein. It is one of the best-known works of pop art, and among Lichtenstein's most important paintings. Whaam! was first exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City in 1963, and purchased by the Tate Gallery, London, in 1966. It has been on permanent display at Tate Modern since 2006.
Torpedo...Los! is a 1963 pop art oil on canvas painting by Roy Lichtenstein. When it was last sold in 1989, The New York Times described the work as "a comic-strip image of sea warfare". It formerly held the record for the highest auction price for a Lichtenstein work. Its 1989 sale helped finance the construction of the current home of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in 1991.
Look Mickey is a 1961 oil on canvas painting by Roy Lichtenstein. Widely regarded as the bridge between his abstract expressionism and pop art works, it is notable for its ironic humor and aesthetic value as well as being the first example of the artist's employment of Ben-Day dots, speech balloons and comic imagery as a source for a painting. The painting was bequeathed to the Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art upon Lichtenstein's death.
Drowning Girl is a 1963 American painting in oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas by Roy Lichtenstein, based on original art by Tony Abruzzo. The painting is considered among Lichtenstein's most significant works, perhaps on a par with his acclaimed 1963 diptych Whaam!. One of the most representative paintings of the pop art movement, Drowning Girl was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in 1971.
Artist's Studio—Look Mickey is a 1973 painting by Roy Lichtenstein. It is one of five large-scale studio interior paintings in a series. The series is either referred to as the Artist's Studio series or more colloquially as the Studios and sometimes is described as excluding the other 1973 painting, reducing the series to four.
Portrait of Madame Cézanne is a 1962 pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein. It is a quotation of Erle Loran's diagram of one of Paul Cézanne's 27 portraits of his wife Marie-Hortense Fiquet, now in the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia. It was one of the works exhibited at Lichtenstein's first solo exhibition in Los Angeles. The work became controversial in that it led to a reconsideration of what constitutes art.
Blam is a 1962 painting by Roy Lichtenstein falling within the pop art idiom. It is one of his military comic book derivatives and was one of the works presented at his first solo exhibition. The work is in the collection at the Yale University Art Gallery
Engagement Ring is a 1961 pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein. The work is based on the Winnie Winkle series, but Lichtenstein changed both the graphical description and the narrative accompaniment that he presents in a speech balloon. As with most of his early romance comics works, this consisted of "a boy and a girl connected by romantic dialogue and action".
Golf Ball is a 1962 painting by Roy Lichtenstein. It is considered to fall within the art movement known as pop art. It depicts "a single sphere with patterned, variously directional semi-circular grooves." The work is commonly associated with black-and-white Piet Mondrian works. It is one of the works that was presented at Lichtenstein's first solo exhibition and one that was critical to his early association with pop art. The work is commonly critiqued for its tension involving a three-dimensional representation in two dimensions with much discussion revolving around the choice of a background nearly without any perspective.
M-Maybe is a 1965 pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein. It is one of his romance comics-based works.
I Can See the Whole Room...and There's Nobody in It! is a 1961 painting by Roy Lichtenstein. It is a painting of a man looking through a peephole. It formerly held the record for highest auction price for a Lichtenstein painting.
In the Car is a 1963 pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein. The smaller, older of the two versions of this painting formerly held the record for highest auction price for a Lichtenstein painting. The larger version has been in the collection of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh since 1980.
Crying Girl is the name of two different works by Roy Lichtenstein: a 1963 offset lithograph on lightweight, off-white wove paper and a 1964 porcelain enamel on steel.
Masterpiece is a 1962 pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein that uses his classic Ben-Day dots and narrative content contained within a speech balloon. In 2017, the painting sold for $165 million.
Okay Hot-Shot, Okay! is a 1963 pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein that uses his Ben-Day dots style and a text balloon. It is one of several examples of military art that Lichtenstein created between 1962 and 1964, including several with aeronautical themes like this one. It was inspired by panels from four different comic books that provide the sources for the plane, the pilot, the text balloon and the graphic onomatopoeia, "VOOMP!".
Bratatat! is a 1963 pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein in his comic book style of using Ben-Day dots and a text balloon.
Brattata is a 1962 pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein in his comic book style of using Ben-Day dots and a text balloon. The work is held in the collection at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. It is one of several Lichtenstein works from All-American Men of War issue #89, but is a reworking of its source panel.
Jet Pilot is a 1962 pop art work done in graphite pencil by Roy Lichtenstein. Like many of Lichtenstein's works from this time period, it was inspired by a comic book image, but he made notable modifications of the source in his work.
