Laurie Lambrecht, Explosion, Slam, photo composition of Roy Lichtenstein's Hand Written Word List and comic book clipping source material, made in the artist's studio between 1990 and 1992. image via lensculture
Why did Roy Lichtenstein make word lists is not really my question. How did Roy Lichtenstein's word lists end up in the list of his artworks catalogued by the Lichtenstein Foundation?
Both lists date from 1990. The first Handwritten Word List, feels like it fits right in. It appears to be a compilation, or a selection, of the onomatopoetic word graphics Lichtenstein famously adapted from comic books for his paintings. This list appears in at least two pictures taken between 1990 and 1992 by Laurie Lambrecht, a photographer who worked as an assistant to Lichtenstein in his studio. In the composition above, titled Explosion, Slam, it is surrounded by comics clippings. Her account of this time, inventorying Lichtenstein's studio in preparation for his 1993 Guggenheim retrospective, mentions Polaroids, "bulging notebooks," and a "scrapbook full of 'Crying Girls,'" none of which apparently made the leap from archive to corpus that these lists did.
The second, Typed Word List, are all adjectives "of praise," in an alphabetical order. Did he create it for a work? A series? A lecture? Would he consult the list when artist friends asked his opinion about their show? I mean, you could probably get away with it on the phone, but it could get awkward to use such a prompt in person. ["What'd you think?" (Pulls out list.) "Neato."]
Or maybe he came up with the list after a heated conversation with Richard Serra, who was like, "You can't have the verbs, Roy, they're mine!" And Roy was like, "Fine!"
In any case, they're both pretty beat up, well-used, and have no discernible aesthetic embellishment. I won't say they're not aesthetic, because they are what they are.
Download Better_Read_016_Roy_Lichtenstein_Word_Lists.mp3 [2:25, 1.3mb, greg.org]
Hand Written Word List, 1990 [imageduplicator.com]
Typed Word List, 1990 [imageduplicator.com]
Inside Roy Lichtenstein's Studio, photos by Laurie Lambrecht [lensculture]
