Category: Cartooning

OHHH… ALRIGHT… $42 million, and that’s my final offer

Yesterday, Christie’s auctioned a Roy Lichtenstein painting for $42,642,500. The painting is “OHHH… ALRIGHT…”, from 1964. I had to smile (maybe it was more of a smirk) when I read this in the catalog listing.

The seamless surface of Ohhh…Alright… may look as if it was rolled off a printing press in a matter of seconds, but it is actually the product of a long, painstaking procedure. Lichtenstein chose the original illustration from the DC comic book Secret Hearts, which Lichtenstein has made his own by subtly manipulating its content.

Attributing the source material that Lichtenstein used is undoubtedly thanks to the diligent research of David Barsalou, whose Deconstructing Lichtenstein project reveals what’s really behind Roy’s “monumental iconography.”

“Barsalou is boring to us,” comments Jack Cowart, executive director of the Lichtenstein Foundation. He contests the notion that Lichtenstein was a mere copyist: “Roy’s work was a wonderment of the graphic formulae and the codification of sentiment that had been worked out by others. Barsalou’s thesis notwithstanding, the panels were changed in scale, color, treatment, and in their implications. There is no exact copy.”

OH... ALRIGHT !... DECONSTRUCTING ROY LICHTENSTEIN © 2000 DAVID BARSALOU

Nonsense. I don’t deny that Lichtenstein had his own style, but “OH… ALRIGHT…” was copied from a panel in a DC romance comic-book that was drawn by Bernard Sachs, and Barsalou is the only reason why Christie’s acknowledges that. If Art is supposed to be about Truth, Deconstructing Lichtenstein is an essential resource.

The best, and most evocative, use of Lichtenstein’s work I have seen in another medium is by our own Miss Lia Pamina, featuring Margo Guryan’s sublime “Love Songs”.

The Beeb on Sparky

It’s hard to believe it’s already been three years since the controversial biography Schulz and Peanuts, by David Michaelis. You have until next Tuesday to listen to a BBC Radio 4 feature on Charles M. Schulz.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/vrvdm/

I’m a bit surprised to hear Jeannie say, “David did a marvelous job…” Russell T. Davies, who brought Doctor Who back from hiatus, chimes in with the factoid that long before the Tardis, Snoopy’s doghouse was much bigger inside than it appeared outside.

All-Ball-Knee fun

Here’s me last Sunday at the Albany Comic Con, with Denro and the Sinnott boys — Joe, his son Mark, and grandson Trevor. It was great seeing Joe getting around with no trouble at all, since his hip replacement surgery. I treated everybody to dinner and we all had a great time!

Joe is a lifelong fan of the Giants baseball team, going back to their years in New York, so he was very happy with their win against the Phillies last Saturday night. Joe’s mother’s uncle was John McGraw, which explains his continued loyalty to the Giants after they moved to San Francisco in 1957. Tonight they play the Texas Rangers in game 1 of the World Series. Friends who know Dennis as a loyal Boston Red Sox fanatic, and not a comic book fan, will be shocked to see that he donned a Giants cap! This proves that Dennis is second to none in his admiration and appreciation of Mighty Joe Sinnott. Considering how much I admire the man, that’s saying something!