Study for Kiss II

Lichtenstein, one of the most emblematic artists of the Pop Art movement, began to appropriate the subject matter and style of popular comic books in the 1960s. His works, though painted on canvas, imitated commercial printing techniques. He represented tonal variations with patterns of colored circles that mimicked screens of half-tone Benday dots used in newspaper printing. This drawing is a study for a larger painting. Characteristic of his choice of subject matter, it depicts a romantic scene; a man and a woman share a kiss beneath a full moon. Copied from a comic printed in a newspaper, Lichtenstein made a preliminary drawing in which he slightly altered aspects of the composition, such as tightening the frame and giving the woman bangs. He then used an opaque projector to transfer the drawing to a primed canvas. Lichtenstein emphasized the artificiality of comic books by enlarging and stylizing his source material.