IIn 1964, inspired by both art history and by imagery found on printed postcards, Lichtenstein began to explore the genre of seascape, using both paint, plastic, enamel, drawings, collage, print and even film to realise his various works. Guild Hall will host an extraordinary gathering of these works beginning with his Pop-inspired explorations of setting suns along with a recreation of his since destroyed Super Sunset billboard commission (1967). Other works in the show will include his experimental optical collages and films from the mid to late 1960s to his gently calibrated brushstroke water views in paintings and prints of the 1980s culminating with his 1990s water lily series in homage to the Nympheas of Claude Monet. The publication will also include an interview between Avis Berman and Lichtenstein’s assistant, James de Pasquale on his recollections of working with the artist in the 1970s on his landscapes in his studio in Southampton, New York, and a biography and chronology with rarely seen photographs of the artist at work in his various studios.
AUTHOR: Jack Cowart is the executive director at the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation in New York, a widely published and recognised authority on Roy Lichtenstein and Henri Matisse as well as on other American and European 20th-century modern and contemporary art and artists.
Clare Bell is manager of exhibitions and reference at the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation in New York.
Avis Berman is in charge of the oral history program of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, and she has conducted more than 450 interviews on figures in the art world for museums, archives, estates, and foundations.
SELLING POINTS: . The first exhibition and catalogue focused on Lichtenstein’s seascapes . It will feature a recreation of his since-destroyed Super Sunset billboard commission. This monumental Pop image has not been seen since its one-time presentation outside Philadelphia in 1967
50 colour and 12 b/w illustrations
