Roy Lichtenstein — Entablature For Sale

Roy Lichtenstein Entablature Prints For Sale

Roy Lichtenstein Entablature prints for sale at Guy Hepner Gallery, New York. The Entablature series (1976) represents Lichtenstein's most sustained engagement with architectural subject matter — a body of work based on the decorative friezes, cornices, and classical ornamentation of New York commercial buildings, specifically the neoclassical stonework he photographed on office buildings along Park Avenue in Manhattan.

The Concept

Lichtenstein photographed the entablatures — the horizontal bands of decoration that sit above the columns of classical and neoclassical buildings, comprising architrave, frieze, and cornice — of commercial buildings he encountered while walking in New York. He then converted these architectural photographs into screenprints using his standard graphic vocabulary: Ben-Day dots rendering the three-dimensional relief of the stonework as flat, graphic pattern; primary and secondary colour fields replacing the tonal gradations of carved stone; black outlines structuring the intricate classical ornament.

The result is among the most formally rigorous of his print series. The architectural source material — egg-and-dart moulding, dentils, triglyphs, metopes, acanthus scrollwork — provides an unusually complex graphic structure, and Lichtenstein's translation of these elements into his dot-and-outline vocabulary demonstrates the analytical precision underlying his apparently simple Pop method.

The Entablature series was published in multiple versions: screenprints, reliefs, and mixed-media works combining screenprint with metallic foil — the latter anticipating the foil elements that would appear in the Reflections series a decade later.

The Entablature prints exist in standard screenprint and foil-enhanced versions. Foil versions, which incorporate metallic elements into the architectural surface, are rarer and command corresponding collector interest.

The complex multi-layer printing of the Entablature works requires careful condition examination — particularly of the dot areas that simulate architectural relief and of any foil elements present. Standard UV and handling considerations apply.

Hand-signed examples command premiums. Lichtenstein's pencil signature on Entablature prints is consistent with his practice across this period.

The Entablature series represents a significant departure from his Pop source material into fine art architecture — an underappreciated chapter of his work that serious collectors are increasingly recognising as central to his full practice.

Authentication

Entablature prints are authenticated via the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation catalogue raisonné (Corlett). Guy Hepner provides full provenance documentation for all works.

Acquire Entablature Prints at Guy Hepner

Contact our New York team to discuss current availability, condition reports, and acquisition guidance for the Entablature series.