(New York 1923–1997)
Brushstroke I, 1986, signed on the reverse rf lichtenstein, inscribed I A-12, acrylic, lacquer on cherry-wood, no 7 from the edition of 10 (incised on the label), produced and published by Tyler Graphics Ltd., Bedford Village, 132.1 x 40.6 x 20.3 cm,

Provenance:
Tyler Graphics, Mount Kisco
Private Collection, New York - acquired from the above by the previous owner

Literature:
Frederic Tuten, Roy Lichtenstein, Brushstrokes, Six Painted Reliefs, New York,1986, n. p. (another example illustrated)
Georges Celant, Roy Lichtenstein Sculptor, exh. cat., Venice, Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova, 2013, pp. 180–181, no. 141 (another example illustrated in colour)

Roy Lichtenstein’s sculptural work is primarily based on motifs from his paintings. The three-dimensional sculptures, onto some of which he even transfers black contours and shadow grids, are based on the realisation of his two-dimensional pictorial motifs. Roy Lichtenstein experiments with the transformation of paintings into three-dimensional explosion forms as wall reliefs, table sculptures and freestanding large sculptures. The “Brushstrokes” series in particular takes the element of ‘painterly’ sculpture to absurd lengths. Several interlocking brushstrokes made of wood are arranged vertically, diagonally and horizontally and connected with each other. They are joined together to form a three-dimensional, expansive sculpture. The constantly changing shadow cast on the wall behind the linear and frontally aligned “Brushstroke” wall relief becomes itself a permanent work of art through its interaction with the observer.

“The kind of organisation which I think it is about has to do with the sense of positions existing at a related distance and direction from the artist. Sculpture might have an exterior form and then it has changes within that form which create contrast... Contrast may be in a cast shadow or in the illusion of a cast shadow, or contrast can be created in any conceivable way. Now, as you turn the sculpture, or move your position, you continually perceive it differently. It’s the relationship of contrast to contrast, rather than volume to volume which makes it work. So, even though I realise it is three-dimensional, it is always a two-dimensional relationship to me, or as two-dimensional as a drawing is.”
Roy Lichtenstein, quoted in: Diane Waldman,
Roy Lichtenstein, New York, 1993, p. 326.