Sailboats 1973

Roy Lichtenstein's 'Sailboats' is a vibrant jigsaw puzzle made with oil and magna on canvas. Look at those stripes, each one a different color! I wonder what Lichtenstein was thinking as he laid them down, cool and methodical, one after another. It’s as if he's dissecting the whole idea of a seascape, turning it into something graphic and punchy. The solid colors and bold outlines remind me a bit of Matisse, but Lichtenstein takes it somewhere totally new. There's this tension between representation and abstraction – you can see the sailboats, sure, but they're also just shapes, playing off each other. And that black outline – it's so assertive. It really flattens the image. It's like he’s saying, "Hey, this is a painting. Don't forget it!" It's a reminder that artists keep the conversation going, each one adding their own spin.