Roy Lichtenstein ~ Sweet Dreams Baby with Roy Orbison

Earlier this week I mentioned Roy Lichtenstein's sense of humor and how it came into play with his choice of words for this image – Sweet Dreams Baby. Once I started to think of the usual endearing use of that phrase, it was extremely difficult not to hear Roy Orbison singing what some think of as his signature song, Sweet Dreams Baby. So although Roy Lichtenstein listened to classical music while painting in his studio, I'm certain he would enjoy the sight of Bruce Springsteen playing backup to Roy Orbison in the version of Sweet Dreams Baby posted below.




More Words, Images and Music

But wait, more music can be heard while looking at the prints in Word and Image/Word as Image. For example take a peek at William Hogarth's Marriage a la Mode. This engraving is from a set of four and concentrates on Squanderfield's bride. She's having her hair done while listening to the lawyer Silvertongue (you have to love the choice of names). Just in case there's any doubt about the affair between those two, Hogarth has placed a black servant boy playing with a broken horned statue in front of them – Squanderfield should know at this point that she's "fooling around". There's a great deal to see in this engraving, including Silvertongue's portrait on the far right wall. Hogarth did the faces and heads but had Simon Francois Ravanet complete the background because of its technical demands. While taking in Silvertongue and the rest of Squanderfield's friends, listen to Kris Kristofferson singing Silver Tongued Devil and I.

Roy Lichtenstein ~ Sweet Dreams Baby

Sweet Dreams Baby, the piece of the week here at Fifty Two Pieces has been the impetus for me reading a great deal about Roy Lichtenstein. There are any number of biographies out there, both short and long. In addition, there are interviews with him. In the one linked here, Lichtenstein is speaking with Daniel Sylvester in April 1997. He talks about the development of his paintings and the influences of various artists, e.g. Picasso and of his art professor Hoyt Sherman. This passage about how he developed the Brush-strokes series made me chuckle.

I had trouble with the Brush-strokes too: they looked like slices of bacon or something, they didn't really look anything like brush-strokes when I started. And I got this idea that I would use India ink on acetate and make a brush-stroke, and it made a very interesting brush-stroke, because the acetate kind of repels the ink. And then I would copy, I would draw pictures of those and it was just a way of getting an idea for a brush-stroke. It had more interest than I could get by trying to dream one up.

In an earlier interview with Michael Kimmelman from the New York Times, Lichtenstein was quoted as saying "I wouldn't believe anything I tell you." The interview is quite extensive and includes Lichtenstein comments about paintings and works of art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the interview he talks of his appropriation of Cezanne and Picasso paintings and his development as an artist.

Wishing that Lichtenstein were still alive so that I could see and hear him in an interview, I went over to Youtube and found a series of videos from a 1970's recorded interview with Lichtenstein in his studios and in Paris as well as a sequence at the beach. Here are the interviews. Watch them individually at seven to ten minutes minutes or all six in a row for an insight into this remarkable artist.

In this first part of the video series, Roy Lichtenstein talks of his life from going to school on the upper west side of Manhattan through his moving to Ohio and his years in the service. He does this while you watch him work in his studio. At one point, he talks about how he chooses to work on his creations, his style and which tools he uses. You're right there with the artist as he thinks through his project.

This video has Lichtenstein talking of his art as we watch him wandering through an opening of his work at The Mayor Gallery in London. Also included is Lichtenstein's view of his early work beginning with Look Mickey as well as his later work of Look Mickey as part of his Artist's Studio series.

In part 3, watch Lichtenstein work on three paintings including his looking at his work upside down and in a mirror for different perspective on how the paintings are developing.

The fourth in the series of videos includes shots of Lichtenstein in Paris, at the beach and in his studio. There's also a portion where he talks about the Artist's Studio series again, this time focusing on his version of Matisse's Dance. Here's the link for the video.

At some point, Andy Warhol visited Roy Lichtenstein at his home on Long Island. Part 5 of this video series captures those moments in Lichtenstein's house and then his studio. You also get a glimpse of Warhol's puppy at the time. Lichtenstein later discusses his version of Matisse's Dance and how he creates lines.

In the last part of the video series, Lichtenstein discusses his work, his style and his lifestyle (the latter while playing chess). The video then shifts to a Pop Show at the Whitney with glimpses of Claes Oldenburg, Larry Rivers, James Rosenquist, Robert Rauschenberg – all looking so young!

Roy Lichtenstein ~ Sweet Dreams Baby

Roy Lichenstein's Sweet Dreams Baby is currently on view at the Portland Art Museum as part of Word and Image/Word as Image. The exhibition is made up of nearly 70 works from the permanent collection of the Portland Art Museum and local private collections. Spend some time with these prints and you'll have a better understanding of the relationship between word and image in prints from the Renaissance through today.

Sweet Dreams Baby is from Jordan D. Schnitzer's collection. Originally created by Roy Lichtenstein as part of the portfolio 11 Pop Artists, it was one of three color screen prints Lichtenstein submitted for that compendium. Reverie and Moonscape shown below are the other two. Lichtenstein used bright canary yellow, intense red along with black and white to create Sweet Dreams Baby, one of his first Pop images. The scene is made up of two partial figures at a particularly violent moment. The punching hand from a person not shown arcs across the paper knocking the other man's head away with a dramatic "POW" in bright red caps. Characteristic of Lichtenstein's sense of humor, Sweet Dreams Baby has an interesting double meaning – usually an endearing phrase is here used as a farewell to the man who has just been hit.