Roy Lichtenstein is being honored by the United States Postal Service with a set of commemorative Forever stamps and a First Day of Issue Dedication Ceremony at the Whiney Museum.
The stamps will be issued on April 24. The public is invited to attend the celebration at the Whitney on Monday, April 24th at 11:30 a.m. Tom Marshall, the U.S. Postal Service general counsel and executive vice president, will officiate at the ceremony. The ceremony is free, but reservations are recommended.
The stamps are instantly recognizable as Lichtensteins, in four intense colors, with heavy black outlines and mechanical Ben-day dot patterns.
Pablo Picasso died on April 8, 1973 at age 91. His works had, and still has, an influence on many of the artists who came after him. His influence can be seen in the work of Modigliani, Jasper Johns and many Pop and Abstract artists. Roy Lichtenstein even did an Homage to Picasso series.
To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Picasso’s death, the governments of Spain, where Picasso was born and France, where Picasso died, have collaborated to observe the anniversary with Celebration Picasso 1973-2023. The collaboration has given rise to a group of exhibits in Europe and in the United States. Each exhibit, and there will be many, will focus on a unique aspect of Picasso’s life and work.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York will focus of the summer of 1921, when his works work both classical and cubist. Picasso in Fontainebleau will be on exhibit from October 1 , 2023 through February 10, 2024.
The show at the Guggenheim will display some of the works that Picasso made in 1900, the year he arrived in Paris. Young Picasso in Paris will run from May 12 through August 6, 2023.
A unique exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum looks at Picasso’s bad behavior with the women - and children - in his life. Australian comedian Hannah Gadby, who has a degree in Art History, has been asked to help curate the show. The result is: It’s Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby which will be on exhibit from June 2 through September 24, 2023.
Derrick Adams on Picasso
Asked about the influence of Picasso on his work, artist Derrick Adams, who teachers art at Brooklyn College, told the New York Times:
When I was introduced to Picasso in Art History 101, my freshman year at Pratt Institute, I felt an immediate connection to the formal structure and visual language of Cubist painting and Cubist collage. During this time, an Intro to African Art course taught me about the origin of these appropriated forms Picasso was so fixated on, and I came to understand how influential African Art is to our modern era.
Studying his work and sources I began to think about combining figuration and abstraction, and melding manipulated planes and organic shapes. You can see this in my series “Live and In Color” (2014) with its polygonal heads. The figures became more naturalistic yet still Cubistic in my series, “Motion Picture Paintings,” recently on view at Flag Art Foundation.
And newer works continue in that direction. They dwell on Black life itself rather than illustrating trauma or struggle. I want the next generation to see their lives as unlimited. I show this with a certain formal harmony between the figures and their surroundings, which originates, in part, in Cubism.
I’m just making work and Picasso happens to be in my psyche — sometimes I wish he wasn’t but I can’t remove him.
Please contact us if you would like more information about the work of Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso or Derrick Adams available at Surovek Gallery.
References:
Gabe Cohn. 6 Picasso Shows to See This Year. The New York Times. April 7, 2023.
Jason Farago, Will Heinrich, Roberta Smith and Yinka Elujoba. 10 Artists on Picasso’s Enduring, Confounding Influence. The New York Times. April 8, 2023.
Deborah Solomon. Picasso: Love Him or Hate Him? The New York Times. April 6, 2029.
