Yellow Vase 1990

Roy Lichtenstein made this "Yellow Vase" with screen printing, a medium through which repetition and the grid make their presence known. I wonder, what was it like to be in the studio, layering one flat, bold color on top of another? What was he thinking when he chose that particular shade of yellow for the vase? The bold black outlines create an overall effect of flatness. The regular pattern of dots in one area is countered by the stripes in another, creating a world of contrasts. It makes me think about how we perceive depth and space, how the material aspects of painting can play tricks on the eye. I'm sure he looked at a lot of other paintings, maybe some Matisse, some Léger, and he might have thought about what they were doing, what he could do with it, and how he could make it his own.