Lamp 1981

Roy Lichtenstein made this 'Lamp' sometime around 1981, and it's all about those bold lines and primary colors, isn't it? I can imagine him in the studio, screen-printing, pushing the ink through the mesh with a squeegee to get those graphic stripes. It's like he's saying, “Hey, let's take this everyday object and give it a jolt of energy!” Those stark lines and blocks of color—especially the yellow and the green—they're so assertive. What I love about Lichtenstein is that he's not just copying; he's abstracting and stylizing until the lamp becomes almost a symbol. You see him playing with form, and you realize that artists are always borrowing, remixing, and reinterpreting each other's ideas across time. Painting is just that; an ongoing conversation that keeps evolving.