Brushstrokes series

In the series, the theme is art as a subject, but rather than reproduce masterpieces as he had starting in 1962, Lichtenstein depicted the gestural expressions of the painting brushstroke itself.

[2] The Brushstrokes were contemporaneous with abstract painting that no longer emphasized the gestural aspect, with non-demonstrative modes carrying the day.

[11] The inspiration for the series was Charlton Comics' Strange Suspense Stories 72 (October 1964) by Dick Giordano which depicted an artist who was worn out emotionally after completing a painting.

[14] Although the Brushstrokes series had a brief timespan, the motif served as a theme in Lichtenstein's works for the final 32 years of his career.

[15] In the 1960 Lichtenstein characterized his inspiration as follows: "Although I had played with this idea before, it started with a comic book image of a mad artist crossing out, with a large brushstroke 'X,' the face of a friend that was haunting him. ...

"[17] In the 1990s, he described his inspiration in more artistic terms It [the Brushstroke] was the way of portraying this romantic and bravura symbol in its opposite style, classicism.

Meanwhile, the work references mechanical printing with the Ben Day dots background, which enables Lichtenstein to parody his predecessors and make a "powerful abstract composition".

[27] In 2001 a large show of his work from his estate entitled "Brushstrokes: Four Decades" was held in New York City at the Mitchell-Innes and Nash gallery.

[28][29] According to Diane Waldman of ARTnews, the works "spoofed the bravura brushstroke, replete with drips, of the Abstract Expressionists.

Issues of vital importance to them, such as gesture and the involvement of the whole body in the act of painting, were reduced to a single brushstroke."

[31] The works in this series are regarded as having "dense abstract complexity" to blur the clarity of his earlier references while emphasizing "the bravura of the brushstroke" rather than the subject that it is used to depict.

[32] The use of the artist's paintbrush to create enormous renditions of house-painter brushstrokes in the quasi-mechanical Lichtenstein style is a commentary on his own painting actions.

[33] The series of Brushstroke canvases is regarded as a group of works that parody gestural painting by commenting on the normal individual relationship between the artist and his tools.