1976.37
Two Studies for Guitars
Artist
Roy Lichtenstein
(1923 - 1997)
Title
Two Studies for Guitars
Creation Date
1974
Century
20th century
Dimensions
7 1/8 in. x 9 3/16 in. (18.1 cm x 23.34 cm)
Object Type
drawing
Creation Place
North America, United States
Medium and Support
colored pencils and graphite pencil on off-white wove paper
Credit Line
Museum Purchase with matching grant from The National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C., a Federal Agency
Copyright
This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s
Copyright Terms and Conditions.
Accession Number
1976.37
“Drawing is the basis of my art. It is where my thinking takes place. It is a big part of my painting,” Roy Lichtenstein explained. Most of the 2,300 drawings he created during his six decades of work were preparatory studies. In 1974 Lichtenstein went to Paris, where he saw a retrospective of paintings, drawings, and collages by Juan Gris. In his next series of paintings, Lichtenstein quoted several of Gris’s favorite devices and motifs: angular shapes, overlapping planes, patterned checkerboards, simulated woodgrain textures, and, indeed, the ultimate Cubist trope of the guitar itself. This work is one of a pair of preliminary drawings for “Guitar,” which is based on the image on the left side of the sheet. In the finished painting, the colors have been intensified and the brown and white checkerboard is now black and white. Lichtenstein has purified the composition, expunging any looseness or subjectivity.
