From Publishers Weekly
Lichtenstein's well-known transformation of comic book panels and product ads into gallery paintings embodies both Pop Art's embrace of the pictorial culture of American advertising and the continuing efforts by modernist artists to transform what has traditionally been defined as "nonart" into art. Comic book artists, however, unimpressed by Lichtenstein's high-art historical pedigree, have long complained about his incursions into their graphical turf, claiming that his works appropriate the visual excitement of comics and garner critical acclaim that is snobbishly denied the comics medium itself. Here, Hendra reverses the process, taking Lichtenstein's "elitist," almost canonized paintings of appliances, apparel ads and comic book panels and returning them to the status of mass-produced product, in the form of a narrative comic book. Using 93 of Lichtenstein's 1960s paintings, Hendra follows a down-and-out New Jersey artist, Brad (represented by the 1964 painting "HIM"), detailing his love life and art world ambitions. The story is wry (Brad is desperate to show his paintings to Leo Castelli, Lichtenstein's own dealer) and rather silly (Hendra manages to fit all those paintings of weepy, jilted comic book blondes into the story line), but it is clever and amusing nonetheless.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
Book Description
Meet Brad, a young man with problems. He wants to be an artist, but he can only get work illustrating the "Yellow Pages"; he wants to fall in love, but he has terrible luck with women; he wants to make a name in New York, but he lives in New Jersey. How will our hero get out of this fix? American comics have become a cult of our age. Back in the 1960s, Roy Lichtenstein took comics and made them into art. Now Tony Hendra, editor of "Spy" magazine and former editor of "National Lampoon", turns Lichtenstein's idea around, combining his famous paintings into an original comic strip which puts a brand-new spin on an age-old tale.
