Roy Lichtenstein: Water Lilies

Roy Lichtenstein: Water Lilies

Roy Lichtenstein’s water lilies pay homage to the paintings of Impressionist artist Claude Monet. Inspired by Monet’s renowned garden and lily ponds at Giverny, France, Lichtenstein took on the motif with his own vigor and style.

The beginning of the water lily motif in Lichtenstein’s career reflects a culminating point in the artist’s development. His early pop artworks feature the primary colors commonly associated with the artist, however, the waterlilies series see the introduction of a wider tonal range.

Lichtenstein both absorbs and appropriates Monet’s works as he continues to place emphasis on abstraction and rejection of illusionary perspective with a pop art twist.

Some of these innovative works were made on stainless steel to appear to reflect like water. Lichtenstein had a long-standing fascination with reflections which he explored as a motif in many other prints and paintings. In his water lily works, the artist questions traditional ideas of perspective and composition by interchanging reflections with the foreground and background.

“Monet’s vast canvases of ponds and water lilies were intended to envelope the viewer. The large scale of this work and its mirrored stainless steel surface, in which the viewer can see his or herself reflected, has a similar immersive quality.”

Monet, and his famous garden, has had a lasting influence on the works of Lichtenstein. Guy Hepner is pleased to offer several water lily works available for sale. For more information on work like Roy Lichtenstein: Water Lilies, contact info@guyhepner.comcreate new email.