Roy Lichtenstein: Landscapes in the Chinese Style

This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition Roy Lichtenstein: Landscapes in the Chinese Style at Gagosian, Hong Kong, which later traveled to Gagosian, 555 West 24th Street, New York. Made in the artist’s final decade, between 1991 and 1997, the series of drawings, paintings, and sculptures was inspired by the traditional motifs and styles of Asian art, particularly the landscape paintings of the Song Dynasty (960–1279 CE). Lichtenstein interpreted these traditions through his established methods, making landscapes with vivid colors, hard-edged lines, gestural brushstrokes, and simulated Benday dots of varying sizes to convey the atmospheric sweep of Chinese landscapes.

Available in English and Chinese editions, the catalogue features all exhibited works and studies, as well as a comprehensive section illustrating all the works in the series and photographs of the artist working on them in his studio in 1996–97. An illustrated essay by Karen Bandlow-Bata surveys the paintings, contextualizing them in relation to Asian aesthetic traditions and Western interpretations of them. In “Anything Lichtenstein,” Carol Yinghau Lu offers an account of the artist’s landscapes, discussing the way in which Lichtenstein defined a signature visual language and adapted it across multiple series to lead to this body of work.