Author: Horst Kløver

A simple handshake that turned into gold.

A simple handshake that turned into gold.

A folded poster is usually a no-go for auctions. But there are exceptions. Roy Lichtenstein’s rare ‘Handshake’ 1962 gallery mailer is one of them. Folded twice down to letter size, the sheet was glued together.  Castelli Gallery sent out as an invitation to its friends. These days the gallery was located in posh 4 East 77 street, between Madison and Fifth. On Saturday, Februar 10 started the first show in New York City of the hot young artist Roy Lichtenstein. It sold out.

The mailer reproduced Lichtenstein’s oil painting ‘Handshake’ from the year before. It shows the black and red components separately and then joined in the lower right panel. This describes the nature of the printing process. It is said that either the artist himself or Leo Castelli’s graphic designer had the idea. But Lichtenstein was not able to remember correctly, when being asked about it.

Properly framed as an art object, the simple invitation letter becomes an eye turner with historical importance.


References:
1. Mary Lee Corlett, The prints of Roy Lichtenstein, a catalogue raisonné 1948-1994, appendix 1, page 322, Manchester, USA 1994
2. Jürgen Döring & Claus von der Osten, Lichtenstein Posters, page 112, Munich 2008

James Rosenquist – Distraction, not Abstraction

James Rosenquist – Distraction, not Abstraction

Ever felt dizzy looking at a billboard size painting by James Rosenquist? Can’t control what element to focus on: the car, the tyre, the airplane, the president, the spaghetti? It might be the depiction of a state of mind, as Peter Schjeldahl wrote in the New Yorker 2003: “At his best, Rosenquist is a maestro of distraction, delivering it in exact, potent doses. The effect feels broadly significant. This art comprehends the typical worldly experience of the people who come to look at it. To be undistracted, in modern times, requires selective, blinkered attention. Rosenquist rules that out.”

This effect makes Rosenquist’s work timeless. His art is relevant for today’s media saturated world. One might call him a prophet who foresaw digital distraction. An endless stream of imagery causes this. The effect is not as strong in Rosenquist’s prints. Here it seems more a reverberation or quote of the painting’s impact. In the etching/aquatint ‘Gravity Feed’ (101 x 48 cm, 1978) the artist uses the profile of a tyre as kind of a colorful ‘paintbrush’. Tyres are some of the most prominent picture elements of Rosenquist’s paintings.

With James Rosenquist, one of the last protagonists of original Pop Art has passed away March 31, 2017, age 83. Read the comprehensive obituary in the New York Times of April 1, 2017. His memoir ‘Painting Below Zero: Notes on a Life in Art’ from 2009 is worthwhile, too. I found it truly entertaining, down to earth, to the point and in no way distracting.

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