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Although derived from [[comics]], Lichtenstein made numerous alterations to the work, such as creating two panels from one original, which are the subject of significant critical commentary. He also altered the relative significance of the various subjects of the work, both graphical and narrative. It is widely regarded as one of his finest and most notable works. It is respected for the temporal, spatial and psychological unity and congruence of the narrative and graphic elements, although the two distinct panels are considered somewhat unharmonious.
Although derived from [[comics]], Lichtenstein made numerous alterations to the work, such as creating two panels from one original, which are the subject of significant critical commentary. He also altered the relative significance of the various subjects of the work, both graphical and narrative. It is widely regarded as one of his finest and most notable works. It is respected for the temporal, spatial and psychological unity and congruence of the narrative and graphic elements, although the two distinct panels are considered somewhat unharmonious.

Contemporaneous critics were divided on whether Lichtenstein's comics-based work was art since it since some contend that he merely duplicated extant original work. Ever since he began creating comic-based artwork, others have complained that Lichtenstein did not give credit or compensation to the comic book artists. However, such artwork has since become popular with collectors and is now more widely accepted.


==Background==
==Background==

Revision as of 13:41, 18 June 2013

Not to be confused with Wham.
Whaam!
ArtistRoy Lichtenstein
Year1963
TypePop art
LocationTate Modern, London

Whaam! is a 1963 diptych painting by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. It is the perhaps the best known example of his hard-edged, precise compositions, documenting but also mimicking the comic book style and elements of commercialism in his signature tongue-in-cheek humorous manner. It is one of the most iconic pieces of pop art, and a key work in Lichtenstein's attempt to present "not 'American' painting but actually industrial painting". The painting follows the comic strip-based themes of his earlier work, and is part of series on war which he worked on between 1962 and 1964. It is one of his two notable large war-themed paintings. It was purchased by the Tate Modern in 1966, after being exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in 1963, and has remained in their collection since.

Lichtenstein was a trained United States Army pilot, draftsman and artist as well as a World War II (WWII) veteran who never saw active combat. He went on to create lots of military art and he depicted aerial combat in several works. Whaam! depicts the fiery explosion when one fighter plane successfully shoots at another with a missile. The painting's title is displayed in the onomatopoetic oversized caption in the second panel.

Although derived from comics, Lichtenstein made numerous alterations to the work, such as creating two panels from one original, which are the subject of significant critical commentary. He also altered the relative significance of the various subjects of the work, both graphical and narrative. It is widely regarded as one of his finest and most notable works. It is respected for the temporal, spatial and psychological unity and congruence of the narrative and graphic elements, although the two distinct panels are considered somewhat unharmonious.

Contemporaneous critics were divided on whether Lichtenstein's comics-based work was art since it since some contend that he merely duplicated extant original work. Ever since he began creating comic-based artwork, others have complained that Lichtenstein did not give credit or compensation to the comic book artists. However, such artwork has since become popular with collectors and is now more widely accepted.

Background

Original comic book panel from All-American Men of War #89, 1962 (DC Comics)

Lichtenstein left Ohio State University to serve in the United States Army between February 1943 and January 1946—during and after WWII. After entering training programs for languages, engineering, and pilot training, all of which were cancelled, he served as an orderly, draftsman, and artist.[1] Among his duties as an orderly at Camp Shelby was enlarging the William H. Maudlin's Stars and Stripes cartoons.[1] Although he served, Lichtenstein never saw combat in WWII.[2]

During the late 1950s and early 1960s a number of American painters began to adapt the imagery and motifs of comic strips. Lichtenstein in 1958 made drawings of comic strip characters. Andy Warhol produced his earliest paintings in the style in 1960. Lichtenstein, unaware of Warhol's work, produced Look Mickey and Popeye in 1961.[3] He departed from his Abstract Expressionism period to cartoon work in 1961 and then moved on to more serious comic book themes such as romance and wartime armed forces depictions a few years later.[4] Lichtenstein said that at the time, "I was very excited about, and very interested in, the highly emotional content yet detached impersonal handling of love, hate, war, etc., in these cartoon images."[4] Lichtenstein's romance and war comic-based works monumentalized comic book heroic subjects.[5]

When Lichtenstein made his transition to comic-based work, he began to mimic the style while adapting the subject matter.[6] He is now known for borrowing both comic book techniques and subjects.[7] He applied simplified color schemes and commercial printing-like techniques. The borrowed technique was "representing tonal variations with patterns of colored circles that imitated the half-tone screens of Ben Day dots used in newspaper printing, and surrounding these with black outlines similar to those used to conceal imperfections in cheap newsprint."[6]

Whaam! adapts a comic-book panel from a 1962 issue of DC Comics' All-American Men of War.[8] The story was "Star Jockey", from All-American Men of War #89 (Jan.-Feb. 1962), drawn by Irv Novick.[9][10] The painting is large in scale, measuring 4.0 x 1.7 m (13 ft 4 in x 5 ft 7 in).[8] Throughout the 1960s, Lichtenstein repeatedly depicted aerial combat between the United States and the Soviet Union.[2] One of Lichtenstein's war series of images (another major one is As I Opened Fire), it combine "brilliant color and narrative situation".[11] In the early and mid 1960s, he produced explosions sculptures that depicted freestanding and relief forms of subjects such as his previous comic-based paintings of "catastrophic release of energy" such as Whaam!.[12]

When Lichtenstein had his first solo show at The Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City in February 1962, it sold out before opening. The exhibition included Engagement Ring, Blam and The Refrigerator.[13] The show ran from February 10 through March 3, 1962.[14] According to the Lichtenstein Foundation website, Whaam! was part of Lichtenstein's second solo exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery from September 28—October 24, 1963 that included Drowning Girl, Baseball Manager, In the Car, Conversation, and Torpedo...Los!, and the Tate Gallery purchased it in 1966.[1][14]

Whaam! is widely described as Lichtenstein's most famous work.[15][16] Other sources cite it along with Drowning Girl as one of his two most famous works.[17][18] It is also regarded as one of his most influential works along with Drowning Girl and Look Mickey.[19] Suprisingly, Lichtenstein had not been a comic book collector as a youth.[20] Although Lichtenstein is known for painting the comic-based Whaam! and several similarly themed works, his second wife, Dorothy, claims that Lichtenstein "was not a fan of comics and cartoons," but rather was enticed by the challenge of creating art based on a subject that was remote from the typical "artistic image".[21]

In 1963, Lichtenstein was parodying various types of sources such as commercial illustrations, comic imagery and even modern masterpieces. The masterpieces represented what could have been dubbed the "canon" of art and was thought of as "high art," while the "low-art" subject matter included comic strip images. His masterworks sources included the likes of Cézanne, Mondrian and Picasso. During this time in his career, Lichtenstein noted that "the things that I have apparently parodied I actually admire."[22] Although the Lichtenstein Foundation website claims that Lichtenstein did not begin using his opaque projector technique until the fall of 1963,[23] Lichtenstein described his process for producing comics based art as follows:

As directly as possible...From a cartoon, photograph or whatever, I draw a small picture—the size that will fit into my opaque projector...I don't draw a picture to reproduce it—I do it in order to recompose it...I project the drawing onto the canvas and pencil it in and then I play around with the drawing until it satisfies me.

— Lichtenstein, [4]

Description

A pivotal work of the pop art movement, Whaam! painting depicts a fighter aircraft firing a rocket into an enemy plane, with a red-and-yellow explosion. The cartoon style is heightened by the use of the onomatopoeic lettering "WHAAM!" and the yellow-boxed caption with black lettering.[citation needed] Lichtenstein employed his usual comic book style: "Using bright primary colors with black and white, he outlined simplified forms, incorporating mechanical printer's (benday) and stereotyped imagery."[7]

File:Whaam! text balloon.jpg
Text balloon of Whaam!

Lichtenstein altered the source so that the exploding plane was more prominent than in the original relative to the dominant conquering plane, making the image more compelling.[10] The prominent exclamation "WHAAM!" is the graphic equivalent of a sound effect.[24] Although the exploding flames are dominant,[25] the pilot and the airplane are the narrative focus.[24] The other element of the narrative content was a text balloon that contained the following text: "I pressed the fire control ... and ahead of me rockets blazed through the sky...".[26]

Although the original source was one panel, Lichtenstein created two panels to reinforce the separation of action and result.[25] The left panel features a prominent plane with a text balloon that is somewhat cast aside. In the panel the angular depiction gives the plane depth.[25] Meanwhile, the right panel shows a plane head-on competing along with the exclamation for prominence among the flames of the explosion.[25] The two are clearly linked.[27] The diptych is depicted with one panel containing the missile launch and the other its explosion, representing temporally distinct events.[28] Lichtenstein once commented on this piece in a July 10, 1967 letter: "I remember being concerned with the idea of doing two almost separate paintings having little hint of compositional connection, and each having slightly separate stylistic character. Of course there is the humorous connection of one panel shooting the other."[29]

Reception

Lichtenstein once said of his technique: "I take a cliche and try to organize its forms to make it monumental."[26] In 1963, Brian O'Doherty wrote his belief that Lichtenstein's work was not art in The New York Times saying, he was "one of the worst artists in America" who "briskly went about making a sow's ear out of a sow's ear."[26] This was part of a widespread debate about the merits of Lichtenstein's comic blow-ups as true art. In January 1964 Life ran a story under the title "Is He the Worst Artist in the U.S.?" on this controversy.[30] Later reviews were much kinder and Todd Brewster noted that this may have been motivated by popular demand saying in Life in 1986 that "Those cartoon blowups may have disturbed the critics, but collectors, tired of the solemnity of abstract expressionism, were ready for some comic relief. Why couldn't the funny pages be fine art?"[26] Although his work is now widely-accepted, there remain critics who continue to raise issues about it such as the claim that every comic-based work was done without paying any royalties or seeking permission from the original copyright holders.[31]

Whaam! departs from Lichtenstein's earlier works such as Step-on-Can with Leg and Like New, in that the panels are not variations of a specific image.[32] There is critical analysis of this two discordant panels.

Whaam! presented "...limited, flat colors and hard, precise drawing," which produced "...a hard-edge subject painting that documents while it gently parodies the familiar hero images of modern America."[33] The grand scale and dramatic depiction make Whaam! a naturally historic pop art work. The planned brushstrokes are pop art's retort to Expressionism.[34] Along with As I Opened Fire (the other of his monumental war paintings), this is regarded as the culmination of the dramatic war-comic works of Lichtenstein.[35] Compared with As I Opened Fire, Whaam! is less abstract.[36] Whaam! represented a Lichtenstein's 1963 expansion "into the 'epic' vein".[37] This is an example of Lichtenstein's painstaking detailing of certain physical features of the aircraft's cockpit.[38] A November 1963 Art Magazine review stated that this was one of the "broad and powerful paintings" of the 1963 exhibition at Castelli's Gallery.[14] One view is that by magnifying the comic book panels to an enormous size, "Lichtenstein slapped the viewer in the face with their triviality."[7]

Whaam! stands out from Lichtenstein's other comic-based works as the most harmonious in the sense that the narrative and graphic elements are complementary, the time and space are logical with the action going from left to right and the components are spatially aligned to depict the action at issue. The ellipses of the text balloon present progression which culminates with a "WHAAM!". The "coincidence of pictorial and verbal order" are clear for the Western viewer with the explanatory text beginning in the upper left and action vector moving from the left foreground to the right depth, culminating in a graphical explosion in tandem with a narrative exclamation.[39] Nonetheless, some critics consider the two panels to be discordant, with the left panel appearing to be "truncated", while the right is depicts a centralized explosion.[39]

When art dealer Ileana Sonnabend sold Whaam! to the Tate for £4,665 (£109,763 in 2024 currency) in 1966—in spite of a reported market price of £5,382 (£126,633 in 2024 currency)—the acquisition was condemned by some of the museums’s trustees, among them the sculptor Barbara Hepworth, the painter Andrew Forge, and the critic Herbert Read. The Tate’s director, Norman Reid, said that the work aroused more public interest than any acquisition since the Second World War. In 1969, Lichtenstein donated what he called a “pencil scribble”, his initial sketch for Whaam!. The first Lichtenstein retrospective held at the museum attracted 52,000 visitors.[40]

At the time of the 2013 Lichtenstein Retrospective at the Tate Modern, The Daily Telegraph's critic Alastair Smart, derided the entire exhibit. When discussing Whaam, he belittled Lichtenstein's inspiration of comic books rather than more noble biblical or mytholigical sources. Then, he stated his belief that the work was really an attempt to mimic Abstract Expressionism. Smart describes the subject matter as "a fighter pilot blasts an enemy into flaming oblivion" and speaks against the work's merits as a positive representation of the fighting American spirit, suggesting that those who espouse this thematic belief are really trying to hard to support the work. Smart does concede that the work marks "Lichtenstein's incendiary impact on the US art scene".[41]

Despite his general distaste for the exhibition, Adrian Searle of The Guardian credited the oversized portion of Whaam!'s narrative content that gives the work its title with accurately describing its graphic content saying "Whaam! goes the painting, as the rocket hits, and the enemy fighter explodes in a livid, comic-book roar."[42] The work is regarded as a "spectacular display of firepower".[2]

Lichtenstein's presentation of aerial combat is regarded as "dispassionate, detached and oddly disembodied" by David McCarthy who notes that Lichtenstein seemed intent upon scaling up a comic book image to history painting dimensions. This was in contrast to artists in whom the experience of the military conflict brought out a need to horrify and/or shock the audience.[2]

The most important element of Lichtenstein's procedure was "the enlargement and unification of his source material". His method entailed "strengthening of the formal aspects of the composition, a stylization of motif, and a 'freezing' of both emotion and actions". Extreme examples of his formalization become "virtual abstraction" when the viewer recalls that the motif is an element of a larger work. Thus, Lichtenstein reinforced the non-realist view of comic strips and advertisements, presenting them as artificial images with minimalistic graphic techniques. Lichtenstein's magnification of his source material stressed the plainness of his motifs as an equivalent to mechanical commercial drawing, leading to implications about his statements on modern industrial America. Nonetheless, Lichtenstein appears to have accepted the American capitalist industrial culture.[6]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c "Chronology". Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. Retrieved 2013-06-09.
  2. ^ a b c d McCarthy, David (2004). "H.C. Westermann at War: Art and Manhood in Cold War America". University of Delaware Press. p. 71. ISBN 087413871X. Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  3. ^ Livingstone, Marco (2000). Pop Art: A Continuing History. Thames and Hudson. pp. 72–73. ISBN 0-500-28240-4.
  4. ^ a b c Lanchner, Carolyn (2009). Roy Lichtenstein. Museum of Modern Art. pp. 11–14. ISBN 0870707701.
  5. ^ Schneckenburger, Honnef, Ruhrberg, Fricke (2000). Ingo, Walter F. (ed.). "Art of the 20th Century". Taschen. p. 321. ISBN 3822859079.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ a b c Marter, Joan, ed. (2011). "The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art". Oxford University Press. p. 158. ISBN 0195335791. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
  7. ^ a b c Strickland, Carol (2007). "The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern". Andrews McMeel Publishing. p. 174. ISBN 0740768727. Retrieved 2013-06-16.
  8. ^ a b Lichtenstein, Roy. "Whaam!". Tate Collection. Retrieved 2008-01-27.
  9. ^ "1960s: Whaam!". Lichtenstein Foundation. Retrieved 2012-05-23.
  10. ^ a b Waldman. "War Comics, 1962–64". p. 104. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. ^ Alloway. . p. 20.
  12. ^ Alloway. . p. 56.
  13. ^ Tomkins, Calvin (1988). "Roy Lichtenstein: Mural With Blue Brushstroke". Harry N. Abrams, Inc. p. 25. ISBN 0-8109-2356-4. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  14. ^ a b c Judd, Donald (2009). "Reviews 1962–64". In Bader, Graham (ed.). Roy Lichtenstein: October Files. The MIT Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-262-01258-4. Cite error: The named reference "RLOF4" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  15. ^ "Roy Lichtenstein: Biography of American Pop Artist, Comic-Strip-style Painter". Encyclopedia of Art. Retrieved 2013-06-05.
  16. ^ "Roy Lichtenstein: American artist". Reproduced Fine Art, Inc. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
  17. ^ Cronin, Brian. "Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent?: And Other Amazing Comic Book Trivia!". Penguin Books. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
  18. ^ Collett-White, Mike (2013-02-18). "Lichtenstein show in UK goes beyond cartoon classics". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2013-06-08.
  19. ^ Hoang, Li-mei (2012-09-21). "Pop art pioneer Lichtenstein in Tate Modern retrospective". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2013-06-08.
  20. ^ Brown, Mark (2013-02-18). "Roy Lichtenstein outgrew term pop art, says widow prior to Tate show: New insights come as most comprehensive show of artist's work ever attempted brings together 125 paintings and sculptures". The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
  21. ^ Clark, Nick (2013-02-18). "Whaam! artist Roy Lichtenstein was 'not a fan of comics and cartoons'". The Independent. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
  22. ^ "Christie's to offer a Pop Art masterpiece: Roy Lichtenstein's Woman with Flowered Hat". ArtDaily. Retrieved 2013-06-07.
  23. ^ "Chronology". Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. Retrieved 2013-06-09.
  24. ^ a b Waldman. "War Comics, 1962–64". p. 105. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  25. ^ a b c d Waldman. "War Comics, 1962–64". p. 104. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  26. ^ a b c d Monroe, Robert (1997-09-29). "Pop Art pioneer Roy Lichtenstein dead at 73". Associated Press. Retrieved 2013-06-15. Cite error: The named reference "PApRLda7" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  27. ^ Coplans (ed.). . p. 39. ...Whaam I (1963), on the other hand, is a diptych with a clearly linked pictorial narrative...
  28. ^ Archer, Michael (2002). "The Real and its Objects". Art Since 1960 (second ed.). Thames & Hudson. p. 25. ISBN 0-500-20351-2.
  29. ^ Coplans (ed.). . p. 164.
  30. ^ "Is He the Worst Artist in the U.S.?". Life. LichtensteinFoundation.org. 1964-01-31. Retrieved 2013-06-10.
  31. ^ Steven, Rachael (2013-05-13). "Image Duplicator: pop art's comic debt". Creative Review. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  32. ^ Waldman. "War Comics, 1962–64". p. 104. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  33. ^ Arnason, H. H. (1986). "Pop Art, Assemblage, and Europe's New Realism". History of Modern Art (third ed.). Prentice Hall, Inc./Harry N. Abrams, Inc. p. 458. ISBN 0-13-390360-5.
  34. ^ Arnason, H. H., Daniel Wheeler (revising author third edition), and Marla F. Prather (revising author, fourth edition) (1998). "Pop Art and Europe's New Realism". History of Modern Art: Painting • Sculpture • Architecture • Photography (fourth ed.). Harry N. Abrams, Inc. pp. 538–540. ISBN 0-8109-3439-6. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  35. ^ Waldman. "War Comics, 1962–64". p. 95. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  36. ^ Waldman. "War Comics, 1962–64". p. 105. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  37. ^ Pierre, José (1977). An Illustrated History of Pop Art. Eyre Methuen. p. 91. ISBN 0-413-38370-9.
  38. ^ Lobel, Michael. "Technology Envisioned: Lichtenstein's Monocularity". In Bader (ed.). pp. 123–24. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  39. ^ a b Steiner, Wendy (1987). "Pictures of Romance: Form against Context in Painting and Literature". University Of Chicago Press. pp. 161–4. ISBN 0226772292. Retrieved 2013-06-17.
  40. ^ Bailey, Martin (2013-02-13). "Who opposed a £4,665 Lichtenstein?". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 2013-02-19.
  41. ^ Smart, Alastair (2013-02-23). "Lichtenstein, at Tate Modern, review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
  42. ^ Searle, Adrian (2013-02-18). "Roy Lichtenstein: too cool for school?". The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-06-15.

References

External links

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