Live ammo (Ha! Ha! Ha!) 1962

Roy Lichtenstein's ‘Live ammo (Ha! Ha! Ha!)’ is a square canvas filled with comic-book coolness. It’s all hard edges, primary colours, and that signature Ben-Day dot vibe. I imagine Lichtenstein, back in his studio, thinking about war comics, thinking about irony. He takes this really loaded subject matter, these fighter planes usually depicted in a dynamic heroic scene, and flattens it out, almost like he's mocking the original source material. It's like he's saying, "Hey, let's look at this violence through the lens of pop culture". The ‘HA! HA! HA!’ speech bubble is so sinister, so at odds with the horror of war. I see a link with other artists who were playing with similar ideas. The Pop artists, like Andy Warhol, were also taking everyday imagery and making us question it. It’s like everyone was in on this secret conversation, bouncing ideas off each other. Artists, we're all just a bunch of magpies, stealing shiny bits and making our own nests.