Description

Since 1962 Lichtenstein has been one of the leading practitioners of "Pop Art," basing his imagery on cartoons, advertisements, and other popular media. Using bold primary colors, prominent black outlines, and patterns of Benday dots borrowed from newspaper print processes, Lichtenstein created a distinctive style used to comment on modern American life and the world of art and art history. In the mid-1990s Lichtenstein became interested in Chinese landscape painting and adapted his familiar technique to capture the effects of classic Song dynasty (ad 960-1279) majestic mountain views, subtly manipulating dots of various sizes and colors to recreate their delicate monchromatic tones. As the artist explained, "I'm not seriously doing a kind of Zen-like salute to the beauty of nature. . . . in my mind it's a sort of pseudo-contemplative or mechanical subtlety. . . . It's really supposed to look like a printed version."