BARBARALEE DIAMONSTEIN
83
Diamonstein :
And afler Rauschenberg and Johns, who were the artists
in the ga llery?
Castelli:
Well , after Rauschenberg and Johns- a t the same time as
Rauschenberg and Johns-I did find a close fri end of theirs, Cy
T wombl y. But he very soon went to Europe, di sappeared, and
although I had been g iving him shows all along, he missed pa rt of
wha t was going on here in New York . He was a lillie bit of an
outsider. But, of course, a great painter, as you all know. After tha t,
the next o nes who appeared upon the scene were Stell a, especially,
and also a woman , Lee Bontecon who did, a t tha t time, most
amaLing wo rk . It's reall y a great shame that after a few years of
glorious work she di sappeared from the scene. Of course, Stella was
to
be much mo re impo rtant than Lee Bontecon .
Diamonstein:
When did Roy appear on the scene?
Castelli:
Actuall y, Li chtenstein appeared in '61 , and he appeared with
a certain number of paintings under hi s a rm . There were some tha t I
liked very much and some that I didn 't find as interesting.
Diamonstein:
These were cartoon paintings?
Castelli:
They were ca rtoon paintings of ba throom interiors. I found
out pretty rapidl y tha t in one of the canvases that was terribl y
interesting he was blowing small things up, you know-a cup , for
exampl e, much la rger than na ture. It was one of the things tha t was
absolutel y required to make them work. There were o thers tha t
didn 't do tha t, and I found them less interes ting. Now, la ter o n , of
course, that element is no t necessa ry any longer. His brush strokes
were gigantI c too.
Diamonstein:
Roy , I' ve read tha t it was a Bazooka bubble gum
wrapper tha t ori ginall y in spired you, and Leo once told me tha t it
was ca rtoons fo r your children 's room. Wha t is the genesis o f the
work ?
Lichtenstein:
I ha te to be a grea t media tor, but I think I drew some
cartoons for my children from Bazooka bubble gum wrappers. I hope
history records thi s carefull y.
Castelli:
Just to fini sh a moment , about his appearance with his
paintings : I liked them very much, and of course, I decided immedi–
atel y tha t he would be somebody th a t we wanted
to
h andl e and show.
Thi s who le group-Rausch enberg, Lichtenstein, and Johns–
in the beginning, before the wo rd Pop Art came out, was call ed neo–
Dada. This was because it proceeded from the Dadaist beginnings of
Duchamp, who actuall y wasn 't a rea l Dadaist either. At tha t time, I
had decided tha t we would do a very special, curio us show.
It
was a
