Warhol and Lichtenstein both played with the

concept of originality of art by painting

artworks that have popular figures as subject
matter.

Pop Art Comparison

Analysis
By: Putri 10.1
Sunday, January 25, 15

Warhols Formal Analysis

Warhols artworks always
depict the subject matter as
the center of the attention, or
as the emphasis of the
artwork.

Warhol often used

monochrome colors for his
artworks. For example: the
Marilyn painting.

He also often used contrast to

emphasize the subject matter
of his artwork. For example:
His self-portrait.

Warhol also used acrylic

on canvas as his
medium for his artworks
quite often. Even though
the Marilyn Diptych
artwork looked like its
printed-- no. It is
actually acrylic on
canvas.

The Campbells
Soup Cans
artwork was
actually created
using semimechanized
method. Warhol
used silkscreen,
printing, and also
stencil.

Warhol also liked to

cartoonize his subject
matters. These three
artworks are a
cartoonized version of
the real figure.

Because of his love for

repeating the subject
matter again and again,
Warhol is also known for
his style of repeating the
subject matter.

Sunday, January 25, 15

Most of Warhols artworks create a

very obvious pattern of repetition.
Both of these three artworks are
repeated, even though the pattern is
not really the same. The three
artworks on this slide are all repeated,
even though sometimes in a dierent
canvas. For example: the Campbells
Soup Cans.

In Warhols self-portrait, he
emphasized himself by setting
the background black, thus
emphasizing his face better.

Marilyn Diptych,1962
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 2054 x 1448 x 20 mm

Campbells Soup Cans,1962

Medium: Synthetic polymer paint
Size: Each canvas 50.8 x 40.6 cm

Self-portrait (Strangulation),1978
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 2054 x 1448 x 20 mm

Warhols Contextual Analysis

These three figures were very
significant in the Pop Art era.
Especially Elvis and Marilyn,
as two mainstream sex
symbols in America.

Warhol always use popular

figures and things such as
Marilyn, Elvis, and
Campbells Soup, for his
artworks subject matter.

The Eight Elvises painting was made

mainly in silver to create a sense of
glamour. (moma.org)

Warhols subject
matters are also
mundane
figures, or what
people usually
call peoples
everyday
consumption.

There is also a hidden allegory

behind the Marilyn Diptych painting.
The fading black and white colors on
the right side of the painting
symbolizes the celebritys morals
that were fading through the years.

Marilyn Diptych,1962
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 2054 x 1448 x 20 mm

Eight Elvises,1963
Medium: Silkscreen on canvas
Size: 200 x 370 cm

Campbells Soup Cans,1962

Medium: Synthetic polymer paint
Size: Each canvas 50.8 x 40.6 cm

There is also a hidden allegory

Sunday, January 25, 15

Warhol was also inspired by the

things that were significant to his life.
For example: the Campbells Soup
Cans.
The Campbells Soup is significant to
Warhol, because he said that he
used to eat that soup for twenty
years. He said that his life has
dominated him, and he likes it.

Lichtensteins Formal Analysis

Almost all of
Lichtensteins
artworks are painted
with comic-style.

Lichtenstein loves to
paint portraits. Here,
we could see that the
main emphasis of
these artworks are all
the girls face. It is
because he always
draws the face in the
center, or focuses on
the girls face.

He used flat colors

with no shading to
create a more
cartoonized and
comic look for the
characters.

Crying Girl, 1964

Medium: Enamel on Steel
Size: 117.16 x 117.16 cm

Drowning Girl, 1963

Medium: Oil and Synthetic
polymer paint on canvas
Size: 117.6 x 169.5 cm

Oh, Jeff... I love you too... But..., 1963

Medium: Oil and Magna on canvas
Size: 121.9 x 121.9 cm

Sunday, January 25, 15

Lichtenstein often used only

warm color or cool color for
each artwork. He never tend
to mix warm and cool colors
together in one artwork. For
example: the Drowning Girl
painting. There, we can see
that all of them are cool
colors, except the girls
face.

Lichtensteins most
famous repetition
method is his ben-day
dots. The dots are
arranged forty-five
degrees to create the
ben-day dots eects,
just like in the comics.
Lichtenstein enlarged
and exaggerate the
ben-day dots in most
of his artworks.

Lichtenstein also used

contour lines for his artworks.
Contour lines were used to
create a better comic-like
look of the artworks. From the
contour lines, he bolded
those lines with darker colors
to create the comic-like look.

Lichtensteins Contextual Analysis

Almost all Lichtensteins

artworks depict an
American girl in a
comic-look style.
Comics was trending in
the 60s (during the Pop
Art era), so that was
why Lichtenstein
depicted a lot of comic
women on his artworks.

Lichtenstein didnt hide

allegories in most of his
artworks. He presented his
artworks the way they are-- an
artwork. If it depicts a crying
girl, then it is a crying girl. He
painted many mundane things.
As an artist, he rarely used his
emotions on his artworks. He
used popular figures instead.

Crying Girl, 1964

Medium: Enamel on Steel
Size: 117.16 x 117.16 cm

Drowning Girl, 1963

Medium: Oil and Synthetic
polymer paint on canvas
Size: 117.6 x 169.5 cm

Oh, Jeff... I love you too... But..., 1963

Medium: Oil and Magna on canvas
Size: 121.9 x 121.9 cm

Sunday, January 25, 15

The woman from Lichtensteins

Drowning Girl was actually a
female character from DC
comics story, Secret Love
#83 from 1962. He changed
the name of the man the
woman was calling from
originally Mal to Brad, and
changed the word I dont care
if I have a cramp! to I dont
care!.

Lichtenstein also hinted at

the previous art era, which
is Cubism, in his other
artworks. We could also
see a little bit of cubism
style in these artworks,
although its just a small
distortion towards the
subject matters face.

People considered many of

Lichtensteins artworks as
something very banal and lowclassed because he almost
drew literally everything from
popular figures. People also
said that he did massproduced his artworks
because of the mediums that he
often used.

Comparison

WARHOL

LICHTENSTEIN
Lichtenstein often used
oil for his paintings.

Warhol often used

acrylic and silkscreen for
his paintings.
Warhol often drew his subject
matters in a realistic form,
along with shadings, a wide
range of coloring, et cetera.
Even though Warhol was a pop
artist, he often used the
memories of his early years or his
childhood to inspire the subject
matters in his artworks (for
example: Campbells Soup Cans)
Warhols way of emphasize
the subject matter in an
artwork is to repeat the
subject matter again and
again, usually with a little
dierence between each
repeated subject matter.
(For example: The Eight
Elvises, Marilyn Diptych,
Self-portrait (Stragulation))

Sunday, January 25, 15

Both used American

popular figures (or
things) in both of their
artworks, or whats
currently trending in
America.
Both often use synthetic
paints to color their
artworks.
Both artists used often
use mediums that
werent used in the
previous art era before.
Both artists tried
something new too
spark the Pop art era.

Lichtenstein always used the

comic-book style to create his
artworks. He drew his subject
matters in a cartoonized form,
with flat colorings, less
shading, and et cetera.
As a pop artist, Lichtenstein
seemed to never use any of his
emotions or experiences in
making or painting his artworks.
He presented his works as they
are. He only judged the aesthetic.
Lichtensteins way of
emphasizing the subject
matter is to create a contrast
background against the
subject matter, or to bold
and blacken the lines that
outline the subject matter.

Comparison
In the sense of the artworks contexts, both
Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein liked to
create artworks that depict popular figures.
Although Lichtenstein depict popular
fictional female characters most of the
time, and Warhol depict popular American
symbols, they always have the same kind
result of artworks; an art that depicts a
popular figure.

Warhol often hides allegories or symbols

in his artworks, while Lichtenstein
presented his artworks just the way they
are painted. Warhols Campbells Soup
Cans was inspired by his childhood
experience, whereas Lichtenstein simply
painted his artworks for the sake of the
aesthetic.

For the these two artworks artistic styles,

both Lichtenstein and Warhol somehow
cartoonized the subject matter. The
dierence is that: Lichtenstein still used flat
colors for his subject matter (no shading, et
cetera,) when Warhol still shaded the
subject matter in most of his artwork.

Warhols artworks are often repeating

the same picture again and again with
dierent bold colors, where Lichtenstein
only draw the subject matter once, but
flat colors.

Even though Warhol drew many popular

figures for his artworks, he still drew it with
his style and his methods, despite the fact
that he also liked to use prints, silkscreens,
et cetera, to make the artwork look like its
not hand-painted. Lichtenstein, on the
other hand, ripped o a character from a
famous comic book in the 60s and then
later paste it onto his artwork in a bigger
dimension. This is also one of the
dierences between Warhol and
Lichtenstein, in context of their ambiguous
originality of artworks.

Both Warhol and Lichtenstein

emphasized the subject matter in their
artworks using contrasting colors
(usually contrast against the
background). Even though they both
have a pretty dierent artistic style
(compare almost-realistic paintings to
comic-like paintings), they both
succeeded on emphasizing the subject
matter using colors, the position of the
subject matter itself (for example: in the
middle to achieve symmetrical balance),
and et cetera.

Sunday, January 25, 15

Conclusion

Are Lichtenstein and Warhol different in

context of their artistic style? Or are they the
same in some ways?

Background-wise, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol were both two very dierent
persons. It is also considered one of the many factors of why were they dierent in terms
of their artistic styles. Lichtenstein was always about his ban-day dots and bright colors
and flat colorings, while Warhol was always about his famous way of repeating the subject
matter again and again, usually using dierent colors or composition. In the themes of
their artworks, Lichtenstein often used bright colors so later the artworks theme looked
more cheery (even though most of them depict a sad or crying comic girl). Warhol,
however, wasnt afraid to use dark themes for his artworks. Along the years, his artworks
variety of colors changed more to the cool colors.
But at the same time, these two artists were also quite the same in some ways. They both
were the leading pop artists, and both sometimes used the same medium such as
synthetic polymer paints, et cetera. Both liked to depict American popular symbols or
figures for their artworks such as comic books and American products for Lichtenstein,
and American top figures and products for Warhol.
So, Lichtenstein and Warhol have their own contrast dierences, but they are also the
same in many aspects such as the subject matters of their artworks, mediums, et cetera.

Sunday, January 25, 15

Conclusion

Warhol and Lichtenstein both played with the

concept of originality of art by painting
artworks that have popular figures as subject
matter.
One of the many reasons why Lichtenstein and Warhol were famous was their
ambiguous originality while creating their artworks. Lichtenstein copied o
characters from comic books not just once, but many times. His famous artworks
(for example, the Drowning Girl) were from trending comic books in the sixties. But
Lichtenstein somehow was able to claim his artworks as his own, not a rip-o. This
has rose many controversies between art critics, but because his works were
trending in the Pop Art era, his subject matters became a mainstream figure. Same
goes with Warhol; he painted Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley over and over
again until they both became mainstream in the art world, and finally, people were
also copying Warhols art style and the figures that Warhol has drawn before. One
of the few things that made Warhol and Lichtenstein very dierent is that Warhol
drew actual humans. Marilyn, Elvis, Grace Kelly, and so on, they exist in this world
as they own. Its just the same thing that goes on from a long time ago-- artists
sometimes draw human beings (or models) and paint them as the artists subject
matter. That was what Warhol did; he drew these top American celebrities as his
subject matters. But for Lichtenstein, he ripped o characters from comics, and
comic characters were already drawn by the comics artists themselves. All
Lichtenstein did is to rip o a characters face from the comic, change a few
aspects from the ripped o character a little bit, and then set the artwork in a
bigger dimension. But because comics were mainstream at that time, people cant
just say that Lichtenstein was a plagiarist. Those reasons made Warhol and
Lichtenstein pop-artists, because they painted popular figures as their subject
matters. Whether or not their intention was to plagiarize, their artworks were still
true and original to their styles. Their art style was one of the many reasons why
they were so popular and controversial in the Pop art era itself until now.

Sunday, January 25, 15

Bibliography

"Andy Warhol, 'Marilyn Diptych' 1962." Tate. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.

"Crying Girl | Milwaukee Art Museum." Crying Girl | Milwaukee Art Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.

Smith, Roberta. "Andy Warhol, Outside His Comfort Zones." The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 June 2010. Web. 01 Dec. 2014.

"Eight Elvises by Andy Warhol Facts & History of the Artwork." Totally History Eight Elvises Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.

"MoMA Learning." MoMA. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2014.

"The Art Institute of Chicago." Oh, Je...I Love You, Too...But... N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.

"Andy Warhol on Artnet." Artnet. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

"Roy Lichtenstein (American, 19231997)." Roy Lichtenstein on Artnet. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

Sunday, January 25, 15