Lamp 1981

This is Roy Lichtenstein's 'Lamp', made in 1981, and what strikes me first is how he makes something as common as a lamp feel so graphic and immediate. It's like he's zapping it with energy. The color palette is simple: black outlines, yellow, green, and white, but the way he uses stripes and blocks of color gives it a real punch. It’s funny how he takes something that’s supposed to give off light and makes it feel so flat and bold. Look at that thick black outline around the shade and base! It’s so decisive, so unapologetic. Lichtenstein wasn't trying to trick you into thinking this was real. He was saying, "This is a picture, and it's proud of it!" You see this kind of playful take on everyday objects also in the work of artists like Claes Oldenburg, who also loved to blow things up to an absurd scale. It makes you look at the world around you in a completely different way.