Drowning_Girl,_Roy_Lichtenstein

Drowning Girl, Roy Lichtenstein DROWNING GIRL DATE PAINTED: 1963 MEDIUM: Oil on Canvas PRESENTLOCATION: The Museum of Modern Art, New York SIZE: 171.8 x 169.5 Drowning Girl (1963) is an example of Lichtensteins comic style which began in the early 1960’s. Drowning Girl is a large picture of a girls head surrounded by a tumultuous wave with the caption reading “I don’t care! I’d rather sink than call Brad for help!“ The first thing to notice about this work is its incredible size. The girls head is monumentally large - the entire painting is about as high as a tall woman. The piece is oversized and striking. Roy Lichtenstein’s comics are what made him famous and all his well known paintings are in this style. The source of his images are obviously from comic books but some of the elements of his compositions come from advertising. Both the form and content of the commercial comic trivialises and generalises emotions, actions, people and objects so as to make them conform to popular opinion. Lichtensteins comics simplified life and reduced its complexities into an assemblage of emotional cues. The viewer accepts this abbreviated language system because it is part girl, drowning, lichtensteins, wave, style, lichtenstein, comic, made, dots, benday, areas, looks, girls, comics, viewer, source, look, large, brad, works, work, rather, printed, pictures, people, part, machine, language, herself, head, frame, flat, famous, emotional, black