Ohhh...Alright... 1964

Roy Lichtenstein made Ohhh...Alright... with oil and magna on canvas, and you see the bold lines and Ben-Day dots that give it that comic book vibe. I imagine him wrestling with it. How much to include, what to leave out. I think about the gesture of the mouth, slightly open as if in thought, maybe reluctant, and how that is built from lots of tiny dots. And the hand holding the receiver, is it tense? What does it mean to paint something so industrial with something so soft? He must have been thinking about how technology mediates our emotions. Lichtenstein, like many artists, was in conversation with what came before, twisting and turning it into something new. Artists see each other's work and think, "Yes! And..." They ask questions without expecting answers. I love how painting allows for that ambiguity. "Ohhh...Alright..."