The White House Gallery A SELECT FEW POWERFUL PIECES
Roy Lichtenstein began his Brushstroke Figures series in the late 1980’s, The Mask was one of a series of eight limited edition prints The artist combined brushstrokes, Benday dots, hard-edge cartoon strokes and realistic brushstrokes to suggest faces and figures. Each artwork from this series was based on a collage prototype made by Lichtenstein. Brushstroke Figures was Lichtensteins first print project with Graphicstudio. Lichtenstein used many different print processes to achieve the final artworks. The Mask was created using lithograph, woodcut, screenprint, collage and waxtype screenprinting. Waxtype screenprinting was developed by Graphicstudio; a process whereby printer’s ink is replaced with pigmented beeswax. The wax is pulled through the silkscreen in several successive layers and then heated with a micro-torch in order to achieve a smooth, glossy finish. Lichtenstein was the first artist to use this process. Art had carried references to popular culture throughout the twentieth century, but in Lichtenstein’s works the styles, subject matter, and techniques of reproduction common in popular culture appeared to dominate the art entirely, this marked a major shift away from Abstract Expressionism. Abstract Expressionist artists had made the brushstroke a vehicle to directly communicate feelings; Lichtenstein’s brushstroke made a mockery of this aspiration, also suggesting that though Abstract Expressionists disdained commercialisation, they were not immune to it after all, many of their pictures were also created in series, using the same motifs again and again. Lichtenstein has said, “The real brushstrokes are just as pre-determined as the cartoon brushstrokes.”
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Roy Lichtenstein The Mask, 1989 From the Brushstroke Figure series Lithograph, waxtype, woodcut, screenprint and collage on 638-g/m 2 coldpressed Saunders Waterford paper Sheet: 117 x 79.4 cm Image: 104.1 x 64.8 Edition of 60 plus proofs Signed and numbered by the artist
David Hockney Hotel Acatalan: Two Weeks Later, 1985
Hockney’s impromptu stay at the Hotel Romano Angel the opening of his exhibition ‘Hockney Paints the Stag
Lithograph on two sheets Sheet: 73 x 188 cm Edition of 98 plus proofs Signed and numbered by the artist
Opting to stay at the hotel while his car was being fix series of original drawings, lithographic prints, and fin a setting could be perceived in different ways, from bo in these works as well as throughout his career.
In order to create these lithographs Hockney made use involved Hockney using rich inks to create sketches on allowed Hockney to layer the sheets upon one anoth importance to Hockney and the portability of the plast
les in Acatlan, Mexico in 1984 was the result of his car breaking down on the way to Mexico City for ge’ at the Museo Rufio Tamayo.
xed, he was inspired by the hotel courtyard and created the preliminary drawings and studies for a nally an oil painting in 1984/85. The works produced dealt with space and perspective. The idea that oth a physical perspective and emotionally by the viewer, was of particular interest to Hockney, both
e of a new technique, the idea for which was developed by printer Kenneth Tyler (TGL). The method n transparent layers of plastic, known as Mylar sheets, using a different sheet for each colour. This er and helped him to visualise the final outcome. The Mylar layering technique was of particular tic sheets allowed him to work outside and capture the true essence of his environment.
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Frank Stella A Hungry Cat Ate Up the Goat, Illustrations After El Lissitzky’s Had Gadya, 1984 Lithograph, linocut and screenprint in colours with hand-colouring and collage on wove paper Sheet: 115 x 135.9 cm Edition of 60 plus proofs Signed and numbered by the artist
During the civil war following the Bolshevik Revolution, the art school of the small Belarusian town Vitebsk became an intense battleground. On one side was native Marc Chagall, creating figurative paintings drenched in allusions to Jewish life and myth. His challenger from Moscow was Kazimir Malevich, the father of minimalist abstraction. El Lissitzky, initially loyal to Chagall, quickly betrayed him for Malevich. His 1919 gouaches illustrating the traditional Jewish Passover song “Had Gadya” (The Only Kid) in angular, fractured graphic forms meld both influences. Six decades later, New Yorker Frank Stella saw Lissitzky’s gouaches at the Tel Aviv Museum and, fascinated by their vibrancy and movement, produced his own print series illustrating each line of the song. Stella’s rhythmic, dynamic compositions were developed using multiple methods – lithography, linoleum block, silkscreen, rubber relief, with collage elements and handcolouring. Stella went on to make hand-coloured variants of each plate in brilliant hues. The story of “one small goat bought for two zuzim”, eaten by a cat, bitten by a dog, beaten by a stick, burnt by fire, quenched by water and so on, affords Stella the opportunity for marvelously stylised yet evocative motifs that avoid both representation and pure geometry. Here is abstraction revitalised, given body and volume, by a narrative foundation of nursery rhyme simplicity. Fresh and compelling, the calligraphic drawing and bold, fluid vocabulary of cones, pillars, waves, in Stella’s “Had Gadya” determined his future aesthetic.
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A self-described “romantic expressive artist”, Jim Dine is known for his timeless iconography: hearts, robes, and Venus de Milo themes. The Bill Clinton Robe was specifically created by Jim Dine to raise campaign funds for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in honor of Bill Clinton, prior to his election as President. Dine first used the image of a man’s bathrobe, with the man airbrushed out of it, to create a self-portrait in 1964. Working from an advert clipped out of the NY Times, he has repeated the theme of himself as an unseen figure in a robe ever since. “The ad shows a robe,” said Dine, ”it somehow looked like me, and I thought I’d make that a symbol for me.”
Jim Dine Bill Clinton Robe, 1992 from Sixteen Artists for Freedom of Expresssion (Carpenter 57) Woodcut and power-tool abrasion on Hahnemuhle Ivory; cut and deckle edges Sheet: 53 x 38.7 cm Print: 31.4 x 25.7 cm Edition of 100 plus proofs Signed and numbered by the artist
Dine has proven fearless with his experimentation of composition as well as techniques used to create finished works. The Clinton Robe was created using woodcut and “power-tool etching”, the use of power-tools can be seen it the areas of black on the robe. Dine has inventively used unlikely methods: power-tools, coffee grounds and India ink in order to give each of his compositions the impact of a unique work. Although Jim Dine has created many Robes over the years, the Bill Clinton robe has the power and authority of the Artist’s larger works, reduced to a miniature size.
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