Storming the Castle 1950

Roy Lichtenstein made this etching, "Storming the Castle" in 1979. It's a small but powerful image filled with geometric figures in a medieval setting. The scratchy textures suggest a world in conflict. I love to imagine what it must have been like for him to make this; he was so steeped in the language of comic books, yet here he is, playing with the language of old master prints. The knights and castle are rendered with this fantastic blend of abstraction and representation. Look at the way the figures are constructed from simple shapes, almost like paper cutouts pieced together. Lichtenstein’s mark-making feels really intimate here. The etching has this tactile quality, like he's building a world out of tiny, deliberate scratches. The overall impression is one of playful invention mixed with the seriousness of art history. It reminds us that artists are constantly in dialogue with the past, reinterpreting and reimagining it through their own unique lens.