Grandpa
Grandpa
Signed Mixed Media
Roy Lichtenstein
133 x 94cm, Edition of 60, Mixed Media, 1989
£18,000-£27,000
$35,000-$50,000 Market Value Indicator
$35,000-$50,000 Market Value Indicator
¥160,000-¥250,000 Market Value Indicator
€21,000-€30,000 Market Value Indicator
$190,000-$280,000 Market Value Indicator
¥3,840,000-¥5,760,000 Market Value Indicator
$24,000-$35,000 Market Value Indicator
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Meaning & Analysis
The works in Roy Lichtenstein’s late 1980s Brushstroke Faces series ponder the symbolic power of brushstrokes. In Grandpa, Lichtenstein transforms this fundamental painterly gesture into the main protagonist of his composition.
Grandpa is constructed out of pale blue, purple and boldly outlined grey sweeps. Similar to another work in the series titled Blue Face, the print imitates the mannerism of the abstract expressionists. Reinforced by its blunt title, the simplified composition is imbued with irony.
In this work, the artist satirises Abstract Expressionism’s claim that brushstrokes are meant to relay subconscious messages. Lichtenstein's Grandpa proves that every stroke is consciously performed and predetermined. Exploiting the abstract qualities of Lichtenstein’s own pictorial language, the expressive potential of the brushstroke here helps explore the formal concerns of painting itself.
The production of this print combined a number of different printing processes, including lithography, screen print and woodcut. Beeswax was employed for the lithographs in this series, as an alternative to printer’s ink. This in turn induced a polished surface texture once printed on the exquisite watercolour paper utilised by the Brushwork Faces series.
