FOR MY BELOVED STUDENTS

  ROY LICHTENSTEIN    (1923 – 1997)

(1985)

  Next to Andy Warhol, Roy  Lichtenstein is considered as the great artist of the Pop Art movement. The use of familiar subjects like comic strips, bank notes or advertising themes, makes the art of Roy Lichtenstein easily accessible.   Yet, others insist on the fact that his paintings are just tedious copies of the banal. Worse enough, they even claim that Lichtenstein was no artist at all! No doubt that this critical stew characterising Lichtenstein’s work is gratifying to him.

  Whaam! By Roy Lichtenstein, 1963.
Tate Modern, London. Probably, his most famous image, one of the earliest known examples of pop art. 

  Drowning Girl (1963).
 Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Page 41:  

 ‘Is He the Worst Artist in the U.S.?’
Life Magazine, January 31, 1964.

    VOCABULARY IN THE CONTEXT.

(l.1) laymen (a layman):

 • a person who is not a member of the clergy; one of the laity. (un laïc)

• a person who is not a member of a given profession (un profane).

(l.2) hedging:

• To hedge: éviter de répondre/éluder/enclore.

(l.4) blown-up comic strips:

 • blown-up: enlarged (aggrandi)/explosion.

• A comic strip /comics : bande dessinée

(l.4) tedious:ennuyeux/fatigant

(l.5) forceful:percutant/énergique/volontaire

(l.6) starkly: complètement, absolument, véritablement  

(l.6) to stir up: to provoke, to incite, to inflame (attiser)

(l.7) a stew: a state of agitation, uneasiness, or worry.

 • Beef stew: pot-au-feu

• To stew in one’s own juice: to suffer the consequences of one’s own actions.

(l.11) a cause celebre: an issue arousing widespread controversy or heated public debate.

(l.12) at the outset: at the beginning

(l.12) to be engrossed in: être absorbé, captivé par/plongé dans

To rub: frictionner, frotter, poncer, gommer…

To engrave: graver

(l.22) helmet: casque.