Roy Lichtenstein - Editions & Works on Paper New York Tuesday, April 24, 2018 | Phillips

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  • Literature

    Mary Lee Corlett 38

  • Catalogue Essay

    Roy Lichtenstein might have considered this contribution to 1965’s 11 Pop Artists Portfolio to be his first Pop Art print. Without a doubt, Reverie, 1965 was also among the finest prints ever created during the postwar period. Amidst America's surging prosperity, Lichtenstein alchemized commercial printmaking’s saturated colors and serialized consumerism into an art that paid cultural currency to everyone. He had honed his printmaking since the 1950s and by 1960 a teaching position at Douglass Women’s College in New Jersey established his place among New York City’s ascendant artists. Emerging right out from the “funnies,” Lichtenstein's characters were witness to 1960s social upheaval as women took a place in the working world and civil rights were finally recognized. Jazz clubs on New York City's 52nd Street were the artist’s frequent haunts, which infused his social commentary with a rhythmic line as well as with those punchy thought-bubbles of energetic banality that he called “audioscriptions.” This electric blonde held a captive audience and her “haunted” song was America’s—the assassination of President John F. Kennedy’s in the years just prior was a moment of mourning that presaged this sensual crooner’s otherwise surprising melancholy.

Property from the Collection of Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr.

64

Reverie, from 11 Pop Artists, Volume II

1965
Screenprint in colors, on smooth wove paper, with full margins.
I. 27 1/16 x 22 15/16 in. (68.7 x 58.3 cm)
S. 30 x 23 7/8 in. (76.2 x 60.6 cm)

Signed, dated and numbered 173/200 in pencil (there were also 50 proofs in Roman numerals and approximately 5 artist's proofs), published by Original Editions, New York, framed.

Estimate
$60,000 - 90,000 

Sold for $181,250

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Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 24 April 2018