Thinking Nude

We find the intimately cropped heroine of Thinking Nude outstretched in bed. The contours of her body are obscured by heavy dots and stripes. Her right hand supports her head, which is accentuated with small colour fields of pastel. A vivid illustration of a fruit bowl sits in the upper right corner of the canvas. Similar to another print from the series titled Nude Reading, the leading lady of this composition is unaware of the world outside her comfortable interior.

Unlike traditional portraits depicting the naked body based on live models, the female figure in Lichtenstein’s Thinking Nude is an invention, expressed through his usual sardonic vernacular. In fact, the print reveals more about the artist's elaborate printing methods and the observer’s voyeuristic tendencies, than the subject matter of the female form. The white wove paper employed in Lichtenstein’s Nudes holds rich printings of ink, offset from the relief plates utilised during the printing process. This form of printing deposits voluptuous layers of pigment to paper, resulting in defined printed elements and crisp edges.