“I don’t care.” These words uttered by a woman with striking blue hair command attention. Her vivid crimson lips contrast sharply, directing the gaze to her face and amplifying the emotional depth of the scene. With her mouth agape and eyes shut, the weight of stress etches her features, massive tears cascading down her cheeks. Her face and a hand teetering on the brink of submersion beneath stylized waves.

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“I don’t care. I’d rather sink than call Brad for help,” the drowning woman proclaims, embracing her fate. Whether the woman said it with anger, defiance or resignation, the painting’s viewer can only guess.

Drowning Girl, an exemplary piece symbolic of the Pop Art movement, holds a prominent place in Roy Lichtenstein’s oeuvre. Acquired by New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1971, this 1963 painting, rendered in oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, is now on show at an Albertina retrospective, which runs through July 14.

Roy Lichtenstein, a luminary of the Pop Art movement alongside Andy Warhol, would have celebrated his hundredth birthday last October. His legacy reverberates through the annals of 20th-century art history, leaving a lasting mark on the creative landscape.

At the heart of Pop Art, Lichtenstein adeptly appropriated and reimagined iconic symbols, from Mickey Mouse to love and war comics, to popular advertising motifs. Through his masterful reinterpretations, he challenged conventional notions of high and low culture, inviting viewers to reconsider the significance of everyday imagery in the realm of art.

His distinctive style, characterized by the utilization of Ben-Day dots, infused these familiar images with irony, challenging societal constructs of femininity and masculinity entrenched within the post-war consumer landscape. His artworks served as a poignant commentary on the burgeoning American women’s, anti-Vietnam, and anti-nuclear movements, reflecting the zeitgeist of the era.

During the inauguration of the exhibition, Albertina director Klaus Albrecht Schröder remarked on Lichtenstein’s art, stating, “In the 1960s, at the height of abstract expressionism, Roy Lichtenstein returned to representational, self-reflective art and, with a lot of irony, broke down the boundaries between high art and everyday culture.”

In addition to his exploration of American visual culture, Lichtenstein delved into meta-artistic realms, crafting pieces that scrutinized the essence of art itself. Through the magnification of brushstrokes and reinterpretation of works by Monet, Picasso, and Matisse, he metamorphosed impressionistic strokes and renowned compositions into simplified yet compelling forms reminiscent of illustrations. This multifaceted approach underscores Lichtenstein’s profound........

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