Modern Head #4 1970

Roy Lichtenstein made Modern Head #4 with oil and magna on wood. It’s like he's taken a Cubist head and run it through a printing press! I can imagine him, in his studio, thinking about all the layers of meaning he could pack into such a simple image. The gold section makes me think of art deco, while the Ben-Day dots feel so industrial, mass-produced. He's merging high art with low art, playing with the idea of what’s considered “fine” and “not fine”. I wonder if Lichtenstein was giggling as he created this? The circles and stripes, the flat planes of color—he’s almost making fun of serious abstract art, but in a loving way, you know? Like he's saying, "Hey, we can be smart and funny at the same time". It's a painting that doesn't take itself too seriously, and maybe that’s why it’s so appealing. And those dots! It's like he wants us to remember that paintings are made up of lots and lots of little marks coming together to form an image.