BARBARALEE DIAMONSTEIN
85
Lirhtenstein:
I think o ur work has changed since the ea rl y sixties to
th e po int where Po p is no longer a good descr ipti o n. At an y ra te I
do n 't love having a ll my elIo rts summed up as " Pop. " Wo rds like
Iha l
SLOp
peopl e from thinkin g. Of course I liked tha t in the
beg inning : Roy equa ls Po p . Th e word mean s wh a t you think it
me<ln s.
Diamo l1 steil1:
Wha t does it mean to you ?
L ichtenstein:
Well , I suppose it is a rt tha t refers
to
commercia l images
o r tha t imita tes techniques o f commercia l printing. There is usua ll y
an a bsurd edge to introducing the insensiti ve elements of commerce
int o a rt. I think most peopl e rea li ze a ll thi s, but I think these
cl ements get changed wh en the work it self is unifIed . All thi s can be
referred
to
as " Pop " if you want. I'm sure we will never be abl e
to
change the name no ma ller wha t.
Caste lli:
Actua ll y, Abstract Express ioni sm is extremely var ied and its
a ll put into the same bag too. You compare Po ll ock
to
Ro thko, and
you sec tha t the difference is immense.
L ichtenstein:
No thing can be done abo ut it. T he names sti ck. I use
them myse lf.
Diamonstein:
Leo, you sa id recentl y tha t you felt tha t everythin g in
pa inting and sculpture seems
to
have been done. I suspect you might
have sa id th e same thing in the la te fIfti es as well. Do you rea ll y mean
that? Do you see an y new trends ahead ?
Castell i:
I did say tha t things seem tha t way, but as you po int out quite
correnl y, it seemed tha t way in the fifti es too, the la te fifti es, befo re
the appearance o f Rauschenberg and Johns and so-call ed Pop Art as
we' ve used the term . So one ca n never fo resee wha t' s go ing to
happen. One mi ght a lmos t say that wha t happens occasiona ll y is a
muta ti on rea ll y, because arti sts tend to go on expl o ring and basing
their exp lora ti o ns on the p rev ious artists, and then perhaps they see a
new area there tha t th ey can expl o re. And the mo re intelli gent ones,
the geniuses, do find a way out of the dil emma of go in g on and
repea tin g wha t their predecessors have been do ing.
Diamonstein:
Well your own wo rk has certa inl y evo lved , Roy-from
ca rtoons to a rchitectura l influences to futuri sm to Ben Day sun se ts to
the influ ence of Monet and Mo ndri an and Dona ld Duck. It reflected ,
of course, much of the sixties techno logy. In wha t direnion is your
work mo ving now?
L ichtenstein:
I don't know fo r sure. I've just finish ed a group of still –
lifes whi ch was based on industri a l furniture, in stituti ona l furniture.
It was ta ken mostl y from ads o f, well , compani es tha t sell stee l
tubular furniture to offices. It 's an o ffshoot o f o ther still-li fcs I' ve
