HISTOIRE DES ARTS 2015

 

This oil and acrylic on painting is one of the most famous masterpieces by Roy Lichtenstein.

This huge painting (1.7 meter by 4 meters) entitled Whaam! was adapted from a 1962 issue of All American Men of War Comics.

 

It shows / depicts a combat aircraft firing a rocket to an enemy plane in a yellow and red explosion materialized by the Whaam onomatopoeia.

The painting is composed of two identical size panels, one firing at the other which is humoristic. Furthermore, comics characteristics are recognizable (simple shapes circled by black lines, disproportionate letters for the noise of explosion, the speech bubble at the top, the vertical lines materializing the missiles trajectory and the lines around the enemy plane showing its disintegration).

 

This painting could remind the spectator of the Cold War and refer to the Korean War (1950-1953) but in reality Lichtenstein used the metaphor of the American plane destroying a Communist plane to depict his state of mind.

Indeed, Roy and his family had just moved in a very nice little house in the suburb of NYC to rest but the neighbor was very noisy mowing the grass as soon as Roy wanted to think quietly.