A little bit of Roy on a Tuesday night

Just got back from the Lichtenstein exhibition at the Hayward Gallery by Waterloo Bridge. Firstly, apart from the architecture, I love the Hayward Gallery! It’s such a versatile exhibition space – well lit with high ceilings. The walls are mostly movable allowing the exhibitions pieces to dictate the space. Most of the later Lichtensteins are huge so decent viewing distances were required and most of the positioning was spot on. Having said that I like to look at these massive paintings quite close up too, I think that pisses other people off but I am interested in the technique that goes into making the paintings appear to have such clean lines and the order in which he painted on the colours.
The paintings were excellent as expected. The range of paintings adequately showed how Lichtenstein got from that first Mickey and Donald image to his later landscape and brushstrokes with the ever inventive use of Benday dots. My personal faves were teh Brushstroke paintings and the mirrors. Also got a good look at ‘ The Artists Studio’ which is enormous. I was a bit dissapointed at teh absence of the enamel/porcelain and 3 dimensonal work but some of the early sketched and source material was fascinating.
This one is definitely worth a visit and I might even win the compo I entered on the website!