Credit: Estate of Roy Lichtenstein, Collection of H. Gael Neeson
Works by the Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein are on view in three separate exhibitions around Manhattan.
Roberta Smith writes: "Lichtenstein’s art forms an ode to the Americana of comic books and commercial art, but it has about it a brisk cosmopolitanism that is also New York at its most New York, which is in the fall. Perfect working order is what Lichtenstein was all about. And the loose-jointed survey of his economics afforded by these shows is all the more pleasant for being interrupted by large swaths of the city, which works pretty darned well in spite of everything. You can alternate views of Lichtenstein’s genius with healthy intakes of urban life and draw your own conclusions from the shows’ overlaps and discrepancies, whether with one another or reality." The most substantial effort is the Morgan Library & Museum’s brilliant “Roy Lichtenstein: The Black-and-White Drawings, 1961-1968,” which concentrates exclusively on the large finished drawings that heralded the arrival of his bold mature style. A broader view is taken by “Roy Lichtenstein: Mostly Men” at the Leo Castelli Gallery on the Upper East Side. Its 25 works concentrate on depictions of men, skimming across a career more identified with anxious young women. And in Chelsea, Mitchell-Innes & Nash rounds out the bill with “Roy Lichtenstein Reflected,” which features 10 paintings, mostly from the late 1980s and early ’90s, that one way or another depict mirrors. While more routine it gets to the heart of Lichtenstein’s concerns. As each show has its own catalog, a kind of Lichtenstein Festschrift also accrues.
Reported in NY Times
