Reclining Nude
Reclining Nude
Signed Print
Roy Lichtenstein
89 x 102cm, Edition of 50, Woodcut, 1980
£30,000-£50,000
$60,000-$90,000 Market Value Indicator
$60,000-$90,000 Market Value Indicator
¥280,000-¥460,000 Market Value Indicator
€35,000-€60,000 Market Value Indicator
$320,000-$530,000 Market Value Indicator
¥6,440,000-¥10,730,000 Market Value Indicator
$40,000-$70,000 Market Value Indicator
There aren't enough data points on this work for a comprehensive result. Please speak to a specialist by making an enquiry.
Track auction value trend
Meaning & Analysis
The visual legacy of Roy Lichtenstein, composed of appropriated images of American popular culture, is categorically entangled with Pop Art. Yet, despite his focus on contemporary imagery, Lichtenstein repeatedly turned his attention to art history for inspiration. The artist’s interest in mimicking past visual tropes is particularly evident in his 1980 edition of Expressionist Woodcuts.
Lichtenstein notably flattens the complex layers of heavily impastoed colours present in Expressionist paintings into forms of appropriated imagery. The Expressionist Woodcuts display the hallmark techniques and materials applied by the expressionists, rendered through commercial overexposure.
Similar to Nude In The Woods, Reclining Nude introduces the concept of nudes to Lichtenstein’s repertoire of iconography. It indicates the beginning of a topical investigation that will become central for his artistic oeuvre, culminating in his 1994 series entitled Nudes.
Employing Lichtenstein’s characteristic dark blue stripes and bright yellow blocks of colour, Reclining Nude shows a naked female figure lying down. Lit from above, the figure has blonde hair and dark lips. Her left hand covers the right side of her face, in a gesture of supposed sensuality. In line with the implied criticism present in Nude In The Woods, Lichtenstein here comments on the objectifying nature of nudes throughout art history.
