Roy Lichtenstein

O. K. Harris Gallery, New York
Galerie Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Art and Technology, 1969
Osaka, 1970 World's Fair

This work is in good condition overall. There is wear and handling at the extreme edges. There are scattered nicks an small tears in the black tape along the top and bottom edges of the work. There is a 2 3/4 inch crack to the support at the upper right corner. There is light surface soiling. Unframed.
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In 1969, Lichtenstein was selected by Maurice Tuchman, curator of Modern Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, to participate in his innovative new Art and Technology program.  The mandate of Tuchman's experimental scheme was to promote an exchange between artists and the business world in the hope of inspiring collaborative projects of benefit to both.   American and European artists from all disciplines were selected, focusing on those whose proposals had the greatest potential of generating a productive dialogue with industry.  Visual artists included Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Richard Serra, Robert Rauschenberg, James Turrell, and John Chamberlain.

Lichtenstein was partnered with Universal Studios, which inspired him to make a "moving picture" in the literal sense, using sequences of filmed landscape fragments in combination with synthetic images using his trademark Ben Day dot grids or textured aluminum.  The project expanded upon the ideas he had explored in his landscape collages of 1964 and 1965, which were his most abstract compositions to date.   In these works, the constituent elements of landscape were drastically reduced to two or three large areas of Ben Day dots representing sea, land and sky.   

For the Art and Technology project, Lichtenstein created three marine landscapes which juxtaposed film footage, much of which was shot by Lichtenstein himself with independent filmmaker Joel Freedman, alongside artificial props to represent elements such as rippling waves or an expanse of blue sky.  Each segment was divided by a heavy black horizon line.  By creating a deliberately synthetic scene and avoiding any three dimensional effects, Lichtenstein highlighted the inherent artificiality of the picture plane and effectively mounted a challenge to the conventions of film as a medium.  The three film cycles were conceived as a single installation, projected simultaneously on screens displayed side by side.

The project was far more complex than it first appeared.   Each fragment of landscape needed to be filmed separately as the natural and artificial elements required different exposures.  Lichtenstein also envisioned the inclusion of a sunrise and sunset over the ocean, but he was adamant that the course of the sun should plot a straight line through the center of the picture, not an arc as occurs in nature, an effect which required complex manipulation of film exposures.   Finally, Lichtenstein wanted the entire film sequence to rock back and forth to simulate the rocking of a boat.  The task of composing and editing each film loop involved detailed consultation with optics and animation experts.  

After the initial exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1969, the work travelled to the 1970 World's Fair in Osaka, Japan.

The films are due to be exhibited for the first time since 1970 at the forthcoming exhibition Three Landscapes, A Film Installation by Roy Lichtenstein, The Whitney Museum of Art, October 6, 2011-February 12, 2012.