Lichtenstein: A Retrospective Exhibiton @ The Tate Modern, London

So, I finally made it to the ‘Lichtenstein: A Retrospective’ exhibition currently on at the Tate Modern in London. The exhibition looks at 125 different works of art produced by Lichtenstein throughout his lifetime, and is according to the Tate the first full retrospective of the Pop Artist’s work in over 20 years.

I have been very eager to go and see his work for myself, as he is one of my favourite artists and had to suffer my own attempts at his comic strip style when I was in high school. May he forgive me.

I was slightly apprehensive about the size of the collection having made the experience of paying the £15 ticket only to find 3 of the artist’s pieces and not even famous ones at that. But I tip my hat to the Tate and The Art Institute of Chicago who have managed to put together what can only be called a massive collection of 13 different rooms including most of his well-known works such as the War and Romance collection but also shining a light on his excursion into abstraction and Chinese art.

I won’t go into too much detail about the art, since there is enough information out there and to me his simply the King of Pop Art (sorry, Andy). I always enjoy the fact that many of his works capture what I learned today is the ‘pregnant moment’ (interesting…) of a story, where you as the audience can create your own backstory to what the image depicts. It makes it so much more interactive than your run of the mill portrait of Richard the Umpteenth.

 

What was surprising to me was the Chinese room. I had no idea that in the last years of his life, Lichtenstein had taken his inspiration from paintings of the Song dynasty and combined calligraphy landscapes with his signpost hand-painted Benday dots. If there was ever an ultimate fusion of anything Western and Chinese, I truly believe this is it. I would have bought his piece ‘Landscape with Philosopher’ on the spot, until I was reminded by my companion that it was not that kind of exhibition. Ah well, next time.

I would like to praise the Tate also for the booklet included in the ticket to the exhibition. While many booklets for art exhibitions are highly cryptic and only contain a minuscule fraction of the on site information, the booklet that came with Lichtenstein: A Retrospective contains all the information given in the exhibition and also some of the images. Thumbs up, Tate, that one is definitely not going to end up in the bin.

Coming out of the exhibition I can honestly say there have been few art shows that offer you this much value for money, all the works you expect to see and more. Well done, Tate! And for you who is reading this, first of all thanks that you have made it up to here and secondly, go – no, don’t go, run! – to this exhibition of one of the greatest artists of the 20^th century.

Tate Modern: Exhibition

21 February – 27 May 2013

Adult £15.50 (without donation £14.00)
Concession £13.50 (without donation £12.20)
Help Tate by including the voluntary donation to enable Gift Aid
Open until 20.00 on Sundays, with last ticket sale at 19.00.
Book online or buy in advance, since the exhibition is very popular.

For more information on Lichtenstein, visit the Lichtenstein Foundation website.