Figures With Rope
Figures With Rope
Signed Print
Roy Lichtenstein
£7,500-£11,000
$15,000-$22,000 Value Indicator
$13,500-$20,000 Value Indicator
¥70,000-¥100,000 Value Indicator
€9,000-€13,500 Value Indicator
$70,000-$110,000 Value Indicator
¥1,430,000-¥2,100,000 Value Indicator
$9,500-$14,000 Value Indicator
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
There aren't enough data points on this work for a comprehensive result. Please speak to a specialist by making an enquiry.
Medium: Lithograph
Edition size: 38
Year: 1978
Size: H 39cm x W 55cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
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Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Location | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2024 | Dorotheum, Vienna | Austria | |||
| June 2018 | Phillips London | United Kingdom | |||
| March 2017 | Christie's New York | United States | |||
| April 2011 | Christie's New York | United States |
Meaning & Analysis
In the late 1970s, Roy Lichtenstein entered his remarkable absurdist period, inspired by the practices of Surrealism. Originating in the 1920s, surrealist artists delved into subconscious realities, stringing together peculiar types of imagery. Lichtenstein’s Surrealist series follows suit, merging disparate elements into impactful compositions.
Although these prints copy the manner in which surrealist artworks were created, the pictorial language of the Surrealist sequence is literal rather than symbolical. Contrary to the intuitive output of his forerunners, Lichtenstein reveals a more rigorous approach to figuration. Posing numerous motifs from his own oeuvre alongside art historical tropes, his Surrealist prints culminate in captivating referential vistas.
Executed in 1978, Figures With Rope presents an enigmatic dreamscape, portraying various figures lined up on a hovering rope. Lichtenstein anchors his composition in wildly opposing forms. Leading the succession of shapes is a shattered mirror located at the right edge of the print. The broken element references Lichtenstein’s exploration of aesthetic purity in his Mirrors from the early 1970s. An amorphous figure with long lashed eyes lingers in front of it, recalling the emotional charge of Lichtenstein’s first comic book heroines of the 1960s. The final queued up shape, composed of protruding triangles, is the predecessor of Lichtenstein’s abstracted Perfect/Imperfect series of the 1980s.
