Nude Reading
Signed Print

Taking inspiration from two of his most significant art historical influences, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, Lichtenstein abstracts the female body to its essential forms. While comic heroines have frequently featured in the artist’s creative practice, the intimate scenes captured in his Nudes depict an entirely new interpretation of femininity. Just as in traditional paintings, Lichtenstein’s Nudes remain generic objects of desire. By eliminating a leading male trope, however, the overall impression of the print calls attention to the beholder’s voyeuristic tendencies.

Observing Nude Reading feels as though one is intruding on the heroine, who is deeply absorbed in her reading. The book she is holding covers most of her face, while her body is obscured by dots and stripes. Lichtenstein’s use of varied planes of Ben Day dots within the composition supply the figure with great depth and heightened dimensionality. Nude Reading is unbothered, unaware and quite frankly all together uninterested in the world outside her comfortable and brightly coloured interior.