LICHTENSTEIN AT GEMINI
Roy Lichtenstein, Frederic Tuten [essay]
Roy Lichtenstein, Frederic Tuten [essay]: LICHTENSTEIN AT GEMINI. Los Angeles: Gemini G.E.L., 1969. First edition [unknown edition size]. Oblong quarto. Die-cut envelope. [16] pp. Folded printed sheet with essay and interview by Frederic Tuten. 13 loose leaf reproductions, with one leaf additionally embossed. Envelope with light handling wear to edges. Interior contents nearly fine. A nearly fine example of this elaborate prospectus of Lichtenstein's lithograph series of Monet's haystacks and cathedrals. Rare.
9.5 x 6.5 die-cut envelope housing an introductory wrapper and 13 finely printed offset lithographs with image measurements of 5.75 x 8.5 and total sheet size of 6.375 x 9.375 (16.5 x 24 cm). The die-cut envelope cover matches the interior folder sheet and the whole package designed by Hardy Hanson.
Roy Lichtenstein’s Haystack Series (1969) was inspired after a trip to Paris upon seeing Monet’s Impressionistic painting of haystacks from 1891, one of the seminal series of early modern art. Whether the artist was Monet or Picasso, or the art was cartoons, Lichtenstein made a career out of referencing other artists and schools in his work. Context was everything, and Lichtenstein boldly addressed his generation’s notion of high art and the idea of mechanical reproduction accordingly. In his pursuit to blur the line between high art and low art, originality vs. reproduction, he succeeded in convincing the world that all is art.
In Haystack, Lichtenstein makes Claude Monet as iconographic as Mickey Mouse. Lichtenstein’s interpretation of Monet’s Haystacks is a Pop Art homage to the French impressionist. Monet’s loose brushstrokes are replaced with the exactness of Lichtenstein’s signature Benday dots, creating the iconic post-war, comic book aesthetic. In an interview with John Coplans, Lichtenstein compared Monet’s Haystack paintings to his prints: “The prints are a little smaller, but that’s not significant. The paintings are all different images. In terms of exactness of placement and register, the prints are better, because they can be better controlled in this medium. Working on canvas isn’t controllable in the same way…The prints are all worked out beforehand and appear purer” (Corlett 65-74).
In his original Impressionist paintings, Monet depicted a cluster of haystacks across various times of the day to draw attention to the relationship between color and light. Lichtenstein’s Haystack similarly run from morning (yellow) to midnight (black); there are ten prints in the series. For the series, he created a full-scale black-ink drawing, which was used to create the image on the plates. A negative of the drawing was laid over the Benday dot stencil on the sensitized plates, recreating the pattern in the positive plate when it was exposed to light. Haystack was also Lichtenstein’s first collaboration with printer and publisher, Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles.
Allow us to quote at length from the Roy Lichtenstein section of Gemini G.E.L.: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1966–2005: “From his first collaboration with Gemini in 1969, Lichtenstein generally worked in series there, exploring variations on a single theme such as in his Cathedral Series (31.1–31.8). Sources for both his prints and sculpture are found in commercial art and in modernist traditions, including cubism (Modern Head #1 [31.23]) and expressionism (Head [31.72]). Transformed by Lichtenstein, images from fine and commercial art sources coexist, redefining the sources from which art derives. Flattened, schematic forms, dots, and stripes, and bright, rich colors are all essential to Lichtenstein's visual effects.
“His earlier prints, such as the Bull Profile Series (31.44–31.49), depended in large measure upon mechanical printmaking methods that yielded flat, unmodulated surfaces. Lichtenstein later explored different techniques and materials: in lithography, he drew directly onto plates and stones; he also explored the woodcut, a process that offers distinctively rich surface effects.
“For his Expressionist Woodcuts (31.62–31.75) and the wood blocks for his Paintings Series (31.76–31.83), the artist carved all of the essential edges that delineated form while the workshop staff cleared away more generalized areas.
“During his long relationship with Gemini, Lichtenstein developed increasingly large-scale serial projects. The Imperfect Series (31.93–31.99) was a collection of massive works constructed around tongue-in-cheek imperfections. For example, in Imperfect 67" x 79 7/8" (31.96), the triangular point at the right and the small red band at the bottom skipped beyond the perimeter of the perfect rectangle to invade the print border.
“Another set of oversized prints was his Interior Series (31.101–31.108) composed of stylized drawings of rooms that the artist appropriated from the classified telephone book in Rome. In prints such as Blue Floor (31.108), Lichtenstein magnified the original image to approach the dimensions of a full-sized room while augmenting the original source material by using stylized motifs such as broken lines for reflection, sponging for foliage, interwoven squiggles for wood grain, as well as parallel diagonals and Benday dots to create tone.”