Modern Head Relief
started 1969, published 1970
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
milled brass relief
Dimensions
overall: 61 x 45.1 x 1.9 cm (24 x 17 3/4 x 3/4 in.)
Classification
Sculpture
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Roger P. Sonnabend
Accession Number
1986.90.19
Art Historical Context
Roy Lichtenstein's *Modern Head Relief*, started in 1969 and in 1970, the Pop Art master's bold foray into sculpture. Crafted as a milled brass relief measuring 61 x 45.1 x 1.9 cm, this work transforms the artist's signature graphic style—characterized by stark black outlines, flat color fields, and comic-book-inspired forms—into a three-dimensional plane. The low-relief technique, achieved through precise milling of the brass, creates a shimmering metallic surface that evokes the industrial sheen of mass-produced objects, a hallmark of Pop Art's commentary on consumer culture. Created during...
About the Artist
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein was born on October 27, 1923, in New York City to Milton Lichtenstein, a real estate broker, and Beatrice Werner Lichtenstein, a homemaker with musical training, in an upper-middle-class German-Jewish family. Growing up on the Upper West Side, he displayed early artistic talent, sketching jazz musicians and visiting museums like the Museum of Modern Art. In 1939, he studied painti...