Pop Classics: Robert Indiana & Roy Lichtenstein At Tate Modern

Robert Indiana, Sculptures, Tate Modern, London, July 2019

A slightly concerning slump in my general energy levels, and an attendant apathy regarding social media upkeep (remember when we didn't have to bother with all this striving for attention?), make this my first post of the month.  Only a Doctor might ultimately reveal if my physical lethargy represents anything more sinister than the creeping passage of middle age, and I guess it's ultimately up to me to decide about what I can and can't really be bothered with, digitally.  But, for now, let's persevere, and keep the pot at least simmering with a slight return to my last trip to London, in July.  In particular, this post relates to the pleasurable hour I spent with Tate Modern's current Pop Art display.  

Robert Indiana, Sculptures, Tate Modern, London, July 2019

I definitely enjoy the way the Tate constantly reshuffles and recontextualises its permanent or loaned collections - not least because it makes each repeat visit a potentially stimulating new experience.  Sometimes this leads one to discover something completely new, but this time it was also an opportunity to revisit some perennial favourites in a new configuration.  I remain a sucker for a bit of Pop, and am often surprised to discover how, in the case of the best examples at least, the genre's self-proclaimed superficialities haven't faded, anywhere near as rapidly as one might expect, over the years.  Some of this stuff is certainly very familiar, and has been rendered pretty ubiquitous through repeated mass-media regurgitation, but there is something quite appropriate about that, after all.  In reality,  I still find much of it can still raise a smile, when encountered at first hand.  

Robert Indiana, Sculptures, Tate Modern, London, July 2019

This time round, it was intriguing to witness how the Tate had juxtaposed certain American 'classics' with much less well-known, stylistically sympathetic examples from the other side of the Iron Curtain.  There's clearly plenty to consider regarding the apparent critique of Pop's embrace of Capitalist aesthetics, from opposing sides of the Twentieth Century's ideological divide, and perhaps that's something this post might have been about.  Instead, it's really about how I was more self-indulgently distracted by two of my old Pop favourites - and by certain correspondences between their work, and my own.

I've long been a fan of Robert Indiana - not least for the elegant, emblematic qualities of his work, and the elegance with which he incorporated textual elements into his visual statements.  This is all very familiar from his crisp two-dimensional works, but it's also there in his frequent forays into sculpture.  Best known of those are the welded steel 'Love' monuments which still crop up in various international cities, and have continued to proliferate in a variety of media and formats, over the decades.  But, here at Tate, I was delighted to discover a cluster of his slightly less familiar, herm-like totems, occupying the centre of a large room. 

'Sentinel' Sculptures, 'Visions Of A Free-Floating Island', Surface Gallery, Nottingham,
September 2018

I've always loved these, not least for their formal clarity, but perhaps most of all - for their distinctly human qualities.  It's difficult not to regard them as standing figures, I feel - and also not to notice their formal similarity to certain, far more ancient statues.  I'm also prompted to marvel at how Indiana was able to adapt the glib, monosyllabic invocations of commercial signage or labelling, to further suggest, something intrinsically human (either physically or emotionally).  Like all the best Pop Art, they allow scope for philosophical meditation, whilst retaining a formal accessibility.  Most importantly - they are distinctly witty.

And, of course, it's now impossible not to admit that they were clearly in my mind (either consciously or otherwise) as I was constructing my 'Sentinel' sculptures last year.  The scale, format, and resulting figurative characteristics of those, make the connection pretty obvious - as do my similar attempts to apply apposite textual excerpts to a sculptural format.  Also, they seem to be equally 'of the street' in their use of low grade, found materials.  There's even a submission to the somewhat corny, in at least one or two of the 'Sentinels' - although I certainly don't claim to have got away with that, with anything like the knowing cool of Robert Indiana.

'Sentinel 5', Salvaged Cardboard Boxes, MDF, Adhesive Tape & Paper Collage & Acrylics,
 2018

'Sentinel 2' Salvaged Cardboard Boxes, MDF, Adhesive Tape, Paper Collage & Acrylics,
2018

Anyway, when not revelling in Indiana's statues, or struggling to find clear camera angles in what was a very popular gallery space - I was equally pleased to revisit two works by Roy Lichtenstein, hanging on the wall beyond.  As icons of Pop go, they don't get much more archetypal or over-familiar than Lichtenstein's 'Whaam!'.  In many respects, it could be said to encapsulate everything that's most resonant about American Pop Art.  Relish for the immediacy and mass-appeal of commercially motivated imagery - tick.  Exploration of the visual and formal tropes of mechanically reproduction - tick.  Dialogue between 'high' and 'low' art and the translation of imagery between certain media typical of them - tick.  Juxtaposition of the candy-coated blandishments of consumption-driven affluence, and the darker aspects of actual history - tick.  Exploitation of the potential of key imagery to both insulate the viewer from uncomfortable reality, and simultaneously open-up avenues of internal philosophical debate - tick.  Perhaps never were existential inconveniences (i.e: war and human slaughter), rendered quite so superficially cheery in a piece of gallery art.  And, perhaps most impressively, given its perennial recycling and possible slight fading of pigments - it still feels almost as crisp, fresh and provoking, as it must have in 1963.

Roy Lichtenstein, 'Whaam!', Acrylic & Oil on Canvas, 1963

Three years later, Lichtenstein made his own excursion into the third dimension, in the adjacent wall-mounted relief, 'Wall Explosion II'.  By extracting the already frozen and formalised emblem of the explosion, from 'Whaam!', and then rendering it in welded steel, he further pursued the idea of the instantaneous moment made tangible (or consumable - even).  Again, there's something both eloquent and undeniably 'Pop' (almost literally so) about the translation of a moment of destruction into a reproducible, and thus - marketable, commodity.  And his use of perforated mesh to allude to the ben-day dots of halftone reproduction, or even the stencils he might himself use to emulate them in paint, is just too damn clever for words.  Those are the same halftone dots I've tried to suggest or even collage into more than one of my own works, in recent years - but never in quite such a sophisticatedly oblique manner as Lichtenstein did here - sadly.

Roy Lichtenstein, 'Wall Explosion II', Enamel on Steel, 1965

Completed Commission: 'A-R-T Triptych' For Rushey Mead Academy

'A-R-T Triptych', Acrylic On MDF, 2015

A few times now, while making excuses for the paucity of my own recent artistic output, I’ve dropped hints regarding a commission that had me tied up for most of the summer, and well into autumn.  Indeed, whilst it’s all been very rewarding, it has taken rather longer than originally envisaged.  Finally, I can reveal some results.

Earlier in the year, the Head of Rushey Mead Academy, where I earn my daily bread as a Design Technology and Art Technician, approached me with a view to producing some work for the school environment.  The school occupies a site extensively remodeled under the Government’s ‘Building Schools For The Future’ agenda a few years ago, and the architects did manage to incorporate reasonable amounts of light, and the odd splash of colour, into what are predominantly functional buildings, - built to a price.  Nevertheless, it is undeniably a rather corporate environment taken overall; hence, - the decision to introduce a little more individual identity and implied creativity into various communal areas.

'A', 'A-R-T Tryptych', Acrylic On MDF, 180 cm X 100 cm, 2015

The images here show the first of what is intended to be a long-term, rolling programme of such projects, and show a triptych of shaped panels designed to be a signature statement for the Art Faculty.  In the long term, it’s hoped that similar such faculty identifiers might extend around various areas of the site, along with other more general statement pieces.

Not wanting to simply emulate my own existing work, I was happy to regard this as a rather more conscious design job, and to produce something which might tell a certain story about different aspects of the work of the Art Dept., and even, at a stretch, form the basis for actual teaching and learning points.  The three panels, spelling ‘A-R’T’ are intended represent, Drawing/Printing and Sketchbook work; Painting and Fluid Media; and Photography and Digital Media, respectively, - these being three of the main disciplines our students currently study, (they do a fair bit of 3D work too, but something had to give somewhere).

'R', 'A-R-T Triptych', Acrylic On MDF, 200 cm X 100 cm, 2015

I chose to borrow certain stylistic elements from both Roy Lichtenstein and Michael Craig-Martin, feeling this would allow me to build-in considerable complexity within a bold graphic, (and hopefully, still decipherable) scheme, and to deploy a shamelessly bold, synthetic palette.  Both artists have formed the stimulus for more than one Key Stage 3 Art project, in recent years.  Also, I see no point in being unnecessarily subtle when trying to energise the environment of around fifteen hundred eleven to sixteen-year-olds; if Art, as a subject area, can’t make a bold visual statement, - who can?  All those complex, flat shapes and hard edges account for the considerable overrun in estimated production time, but should mean that any necessary future repairs or touching-up might prove easier.

It seemed important that the students should have some input into what was hopefully going to a fairly slick, professional-looking final product.  The superficial style of the piece didn’t really lend itself to short attention spans or free brushwork, so instead, a variety of groups were asked to generate a selection of gestural marks, hand prints, blots and brushstrokes as raw material.  If nothing else, I hoped this might provide an opportunity for a little recreational, end-of-term mess-creation, free from the pressure of meeting set targets or quantifiable standards.  These were scanned and reinterpreted by me for incorporation into the final compositions.  This was a strategy inspired by Lichtenstein’s own formalisation of painterly brushstrokes into his trademark, deliberate graphic style.  This idea of translation between different modes of mark-making, and the processing of a statement through both hi and low-tech media is something I think about a lot at the moment.

'T', 'A-R-T Triptych', Acrylic On MDF, 180 cm X 100 cm, 2015

I supplemented my stock of such compositional elements by trawling students’ sketchbooks for further pre-existing sources, (including various hatching marks and the African mask motif), before bringing everything together as final designs in Photoshop.  That last one was part of my response to the school’s request for a multi-cultural dimension to be included in the overall scheme.  The preponderance of Asian-origin students in the school suggested the inclusion of Rajasthani printing block motifs in the ‘A’ panel, whilst an African mask motif from a student’s research drawing was reinterpreted in a consciously digital style for ‘T’, in some attempt to bridge the traditional with the contemporary.  Keen not to just ‘tick boxes’ I chose an indigenous Australian turtle motif for the ‘R’ panel.  It was an attempt to reference a very particular and highly recognisable painting tradition, outside our own back yard.  If Multi-Culturalism is to mean much, it should include some sense of the universality of the arts, as well as own familiar interest groups, in my opinion.

All that stuff can be a potential minefield, of course, and I fully recognise that the overall style of the triptych still leans on my own Western ‘Fine Art’ preoccupations fairly heavily.  However, it is my belief that, to some extent at least, the highly knowing, technologically derived, and self-consciously Pop aspects of both Lichtenstein’s and Craig-Martin’s work do reflect the wider culture in which all our students, of whatever origin, now swim.

'A', 'A-R-T' Triptych', Original Design, Photoshop File, 2015

This idea of bridging is something that extends through the references to various media across the three panels.  It was never my intention to create a three-stage chronological account, but there is a definite sense of the ancient and modern co-existing within the piece.  The devotion of the third ‘T’ panel to modern, photographic and digital media was a deliberate attempt to suggest current and future preoccupations, but even within that context, there is already a sense of an evolving tradition.  It was the Head’s suggestion that the panel should refer to older, analogue photographic methods, (in the negative strip), as well as the obviously digital, (in the Photoshop tools palette and pixelated elements).

For similar reasons, I was determined to include the handprint motif in the central panel.  Apart from its superficial decorative potential, it serves as a reminder of Paleolithic Cave Art, and that artistic endeavour lies at the very core of Human experience.  It was central to the experience of our species from the start, and in a context in which technological advance and expressive thinking were inextricably bound together.  That’s something worth remembering, given the current preoccupations with stripping creativity from educational curricula, and prioritising the traditionally academic and the easily quantified.

'R', 'A-R-T Triptych', Original Design, Photoshop File, 2015

How much of all that will be communicable to the students who pass by the piece each day remains to be seen.  It should provide a bold splash of colourful decoration if nothing else, but I hope there is enough there to stimulate a bit of discussion beyond its obvious surface qualities.  It was for this reason that each of the panel designs also includes a digital QR code.  It would seem shortsighted to discuss all that inter-disciplinary stuff without accepting the cross-platform nature of contemporary culture, - in which everything is expected to act as a portal to something else.  Thus, any student pausing long enough to wave their phone over the piece currently, can gain access to websites devoted to the school’s Art Dept. in general; our GCSE Photography course; and, hopefully, the process of producing the piece in the first place.  Those are, by their very nature, highly adaptable in the future.

By the time you read this, the three panels should be being finally mounted on the wall.  As they will reside in a high-traffic corridor, each will be sandwiched behind a protective sheet of clear acrylic, - cut to the same shape.  For that reason, I’ve photographed them in their raw state here, to avoid problematic reflections.  I’ll try to bung up a couple of shots of them in their final state, once they’re in situ.  As mentioned, the original intention was for this piece to be the start of a much larger process.  There is a considerable pool of creative staff talent in the school, both above and below the radar, so there’s definitely the potential to do a lot, should time and finances allow.  I’ll keep you abreast of any future developments.

'T', 'A-R-T Triptych', Original Design, Photoshop File, 2015

Thanks go to: Academy Head, Rita Hindocha, and Business Manager, Sheila Carr, for their vision, and for creating a situation in which this project could happen; and to Lead Teacher For Art, Tim Durham, for being a highly energized catalyst.  It also goes to Steve Peach; Derek Foreman (& Premises Team); and Kajal Patel, for technical assistance and facilitation.  Appreciation is also due, for positive feedback and a constant stream of encouraging comments, to: Jo Woolridge, Heather McAusland, Amy Goodwin, Poonam Mistry, and numerous other staff and students passing through the Art Dept. in recent months. 

Finally: apologies to the cleaning staff for cluttering the place up for so many evenings, in order to get the project finished!