Ohhh...Alright... 1964

Roy Lichtenstein made ‘Ohhh…Alright…’ a painting, from an unknown date, with oil and magna on canvas. Lichtenstein was interested in the way that industrial processes could be used to make paintings. The flat colours and Ben-Day dots mimic the look of printed images in comic books and newspapers. He’s using a limited colour palette of red, black, yellow and white, the colours found in commercial printing, and reducing his gestures to thin black outlines. Look at how he renders the skin of the face in pink with these dots – this relates to his wider interest in the industrialisation of art and culture. The dots also have the effect of flattening the image, making it feel both abstract and representational at the same time. This piece reminds me a little of Peter Blake, but where Blake’s work has a more handmade feel, Lichtenstein’s piece feels much more slick and machine-made. It’s kind of ironic really, because, of course, these paintings were all made by hand!