Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein (American, 1923–1997)

Roy Lichtenstein was not generally thought of as a ceramist; yet, in 1954–65, he created an extraordinary body of work—26 ceramic sculptures—exhibited as a discrete group only twice: at Leo Castelli Gallery, New York in 1963, and at the University Art Museum (UAM) in 1977. At the time of the UAM exhibition, the Museum did not purchase a ceramic sculpture (because of its mission to acquire works on paper), but, in 1981, Study for Purist Still Life was selected for the collection based on its exquisite rendering of forms that represent a continuation of the artist’s interest in utilitarian vessels first seen in the ceramic cups and saucers. Lichtenstein constantly subjected his images and motifs to reexamination and renewal. Thus, the crockery forms of 1964–65 were recreated in the Cubist Still Lifes of 1972, and were seen again in an entirely new guise in his freestanding bronzes of 1976. In this period (1975) he completed the Museum’s drawing in the “purist” or precisionist style. In preparation for the 1977 UAM catalogue Roy Lichtenstein: Ceramic Sculpture, Lichtenstein noted, “ I don’t want to argue that sculpture is really two-dimensional…. The thing that is significant about [its] organization is that it is unified in the same way as a drawing…. It’s the relationship of contrast to contrast, rather than volume to volume, which makes it work." Roy Lichtenstein: Ceramic Sculpture is available at Shop UAM.