In the car 1963

Roy Lichtenstein's "In the Car," is a large painting of synthetic polymer paint on canvas. It's like he’s zoomed in on a frame from a comic book, but it’s also so much more. I wonder what it was like for him to make this. Maybe he was thinking about those old romance comics, the kind with the dramatic close-ups and the heightened emotions. The way he flattens everything, reduces it to these graphic shapes and bold colors, it’s almost like he's saying, "Let's look at these images differently. Let’s see them for what they are – constructions, stereotypes, fictions." The speed lines around the woman’s head, for instance, they’re not just about showing movement. They're about showing the artifice of movement, how it's represented, how it's stylized. In a way he is inviting us to question all the images that surround us. Artists are always riffing off each other, having this ongoing conversation across time. It's like we're all in this big, messy studio together, borrowing ideas, challenging assumptions, and pushing the boundaries of what painting can do.