Screenprint on enamel on stainless steel
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
ARTIST ROOMS
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/roy-lichtenstein-1508" aria-label="More by Roy Lichtenstein" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Roy Lichtenstein</a>
Water Lilies with Japanese Bridge
ARTIST ROOMS 
Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Collection 2015
abstraction
architecture
Ben-Day dots
bridge
bridges and viaducts
cartoon / comic strip
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
from recognisable sources
landscape
natural phenomena
plants and flowers
pond
reflection
water-lily
water: inland
<p><span>Water Lilies with Japanese Bridge</span> 1992 is one of a series of six screenprints on stainless steel that Lichtenstein made on the subject of water lilies, a series which pays homage to Claude Monet’s (1840–1926) ‘Nymphéas’ paintings of water lilies (see, for example, <span>Water Lilies</span> after 1916 [Tate L01903]). Two others from the series are also in Tate’s collection: <span>Water Lilies with Cloud</span> 1992 (Tate AL00372) and <span>Water Lily Pond with Reflections</span> 1992 (Tate AL00374). Lichtenstein collaborated with Donald Saff at Saff Tech Arts in Oxford, Maryland to produce the prints. Tate’s copies are from the set of artist’s proofs aside from the edition of twenty-three, and are recorded in the catalogue raisonné of the artist’s prints (Corlett 1994, pp.241–2). These works are a highly accomplished and innovative form of printmaking on stainless steel, and involved the development of a new technique in order to achieve a particular pattern on the metal. As Mary Lee Corlett noted in the catalogue raisonné:</p>
paper print screenprint enamel stainless steel
14 March 2015 – 10 January 2016
2016-01-10
14 March 2015 – 10 January 2016
2016-01-10
2015-03-14
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh, UK)
http://www.nationalgalleries.org/
2015-03-14
ARTIST ROOMS Roy Lichtenstein
Collection based display
22 October 2016 – 26 February 2017
2017-02-26
22 October 2016 – 26 February 2017
2017-02-26
2016-10-22
Wolverhampton Art Gallery (Wolverhampton, UK)
http://www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk
2016-10-22
ARTIST ROOMS 2016: Roy Lichtenstein
Loan-out
13 July 2019 – 4 January 2020
2020-01-04
13 July 2019 – 7 September 2019
2019-09-07
2019-07-13
Grundy Art Gallery (Blackpool, UK)
28 September 2019 – 4 January 2020
2020-01-04
2019-09-28
Hatton Gallery (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
2019-07-13
ARTIST ROOMS 2019: Roy Lichtenstein
Loan-out
10 May 2024 – 8 September 2024
2024-09-08
10 May 2024 – 8 September 2024
2024-09-08
2024-05-10
York Museums Trust (York, UK)
2024-05-10
National Treasures: Monet in York
Loan-out
Water Lilies with Japanese Bridge
2115 × 1473 mm


<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a> 
Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Collection 2015
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<p>
<i>Water Lilies with Japanese Bridge</i> 1992 is one of a series of six screenprints on stainless steel that Lichtenstein made on the subject of water lilies, a series which pays homage to Claude Monet’s (1840–1926) ‘Nymphéas’ paintings of water lilies (see, for example, <i>Water Lilies</i> after 1916 [Tate L01903]). Two others from the series are also in Tate’s collection: <i>Water Lilies with Cloud</i> 1992 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lichtenstein-water-lilies-with-cloud-al00372" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AL00372</span></a>) and <i>Water Lily Pond with Reflections</i> 1992 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lichtenstein-water-lily-pond-with-reflections-al00374" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AL00374</span></a>). Lichtenstein collaborated with Donald Saff at Saff Tech Arts in Oxford, Maryland to produce the prints. Tate’s copies are from the set of artist’s proofs aside from the edition of twenty-three, and are recorded in the catalogue raisonné of the artist’s prints (Corlett 1994, pp.241–2). These works are a highly accomplished and innovative form of printmaking on stainless steel, and involved the development of a new technique in order to achieve a particular pattern on the metal. As Mary Lee Corlett noted in the catalogue raisonné: </p>
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</p><blockquote>the swirl patterns in the metal dashboards that Lichtenstein remembered from the automobiles of the 1920s and 1930s had been a longtime interest of his, but one that had not found expression until the Saff Tech Arts project. At Saff Tech, a method was developed to create the swirls, using a drill press fitted with a rubber end and suspended upside down from the ceiling. Production of the pattern was labour intensive, as each swirl was executed individually. Sign painter’s enamel was screenprinted on the metal to build a surface of colour that is collage-like in appearance. Lichtenstein designed all of the original frames. Although not apparent in photographs, the images transmogrify – reflecting the light and colour of the room they occupy, shifting and changing as the prints are viewed from different angles.<br/>(Corlett 1994, p.239.)</blockquote>
<p>Lichtenstein made numerous paintings and prints based on the work of other artists, including Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, and had first made works that paid homage to Monet in 1969, with a series of prints after the French painter’s <i>Cathedral</i> and <i>Haystack</i> series (see Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lichtenstein-haystacks-1-p07407" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07407</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lichtenstein-haystacks-7-p07413" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07413</span></a>). However, the <i>Water Lilies</i> series can also be related to Lichtenstein’s preoccupation with reflections, the roots of which can be found in his early pop art works, and which he developed throughout his career, most notably in the <i>Mirror</i> paintings made between 1969 and 1972 and which continued in the <i>Reflection </i>series of paintings and prints in the early 1990s (see the series of <i>Reflections </i>prints [Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lichtenstein-reflections-on-hair-p12127" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P12127</span></a>, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lichtenstein-reflections-on-brushstrokes-p12128" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P12128</span></a> and <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lichtenstein-reflections-on-conversation-al00367" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AL00367</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lichtenstein-reflections-on-the-scream-al00371" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AL00371</span></a>]). </p>
<p>Lichtenstein was born in New York, and was a central player in American pop art. He came to prominence in the 1960s, making works based on imagery from comic strips, such as <i>In the Car</i> and <i>Whaam! </i>1963 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lichtenstein-whaam-t00897" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T00897</span></a>). In these works he used the Benday dot, common to newspaper and magazine reproduction, to produce works that appeared mechanically reproduced, and which in fact are even more stylised than the cartoons Lichtenstein appropriated. Printmaking was an integral part of his practice throughout his career from the late 1950s through to the 1990s.</p>
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<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Mary Lee Corlett, <i>The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonné: 1948–1993</i>, New York and Washington D.C. 1994.<br/>Mary Lee Corlett and Ruth E. Fine,<i> The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonné: 1948–1997</i>, New York and Washington D.C., revised and updated second edition 2002.<br/>Graham Bader (ed.), <i>OCTOBER Files 7: Roy Lichtenstein</i>, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London 2009.<br/>James Rondeau and Sheena Wagstaff, <i>Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Modern, London and Art Institute of Chicago<i> </i>2012.</p>
<p>Lucy Askew<br/>Senior Curator, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh<br/>August 2014</p>
<p>Amended by Stephen Huyton<br/>Assistant Collection Registrar, ARTIST ROOMS<br/>September 2017</p>
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Summary
2018-02-22T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
abstraction architecture Ben-Day dots bridge bridges and viaducts cartoon / comic strip emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities from recognisable sources landscape natural phenomena plants and flowers pond reflection water: inland water-lily